Martin Hamilton Futurist at Jisc

A world on fire? Martin Hamilton, Futurist @ Jisc Picture credit: Anonymous Internet user via GIPHY

A world on fire? Martin Hamilton, Futurist @ Jisc Picture credit: Anonymous Internet user via GIPHY

1. Trouble in Paradise 2. Impedance mismatch 3. Fight for the future! Wind and Water sculpture, UCD

1. Trouble in Paradise A world on fire? EDGE Conference 2019

Climate crisis Thermal excursions Extreme weather Climate refugees Climate change came to Paradise last year, as California’s wildfires destroyed tens of thousands of buildings across the state and forced over 250,000 people out of their homes. In Paradise the library was one of a handful of buildings left standing, and quickly became an emergency coordination and disaster recovery centre, giving local residents and federal agencies a base to work from and rebuild their community. This is part of a wider pattern of Californian summers becoming hotter, with a rise of three degrees Fahrenheit over the last century, and the hottest and driest summers ever recorded occurring in the last twenty years. In an ironic twist, whilst the wildfires themselves may be symptomatic of wider climate change, it turns out that the black carbon they released into the atmosphere is in itself a potent contributor to further global warming Photo credit: NASA, public domain https://www.climatecentral.org/news/pollution-arctic-sea-ice-19583 A world on fire? EDGE Conference 2019

Weaponised opinions Eyeballs for sale Advanced Persistent Threats Paperclip maximiser A world on fire? EDGE Conference 2019 Photo credit: Adjacking by Protest Stencil

Literacy and numeracy crisis KS2: 1/3 of UK’s 11 year olds fail to meet expected standard More than half in some areas A world on fire? EDGE Conference 2019 Picture credit: CC BY-NC Flickr user Denny Atkinson