
Originally published by Europe’s World*, Spring Issue 2012”, http://www.europesworld.org
Mankind is entering the third industrial revolution, says American futurologist Jeremy Rifkin, and it heralds a future of more continental-scale political unions like the EU along with dramatic shifts in our economic patterns
Industrial civilisation is at a crossroads. Oil and the other fossil fuels that make up our industrial way of life are sunsetting, and the technologies made from and propelled by these energies are becoming antiquated. The ageing industrial infrastructure based on fossil fuels is increasingly in disrepair. The result is that unemployment is rising to dangerous levels around the world, with governments, businesses and consumers awash in debt and living standards plummeting everywhere. A record one billion human beings – a seventh of the human race – face hunger if not starvation. Worse, climate change from fossil fuel-based industrial activity looms on the horizon. It is increasingly clear that we need a new economic narrative to take us into a more equitable and sustainable future.
Great economic revolutions occur when new communication technologies converge with new energy systems. New energy systems increase interdependent economic activity and expand commercial exchange. They also facilitate more dense and inclusive social relationships. New communication revolutions in turn become the means to manage the new dynamics arising from new energy systems.