Laurence C Smith

UCLA Scientist Examining Intersection of Population Demographics, Globalization, Natural Resource Demand, and Climate Change

The World in 2050

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Dr. Laurence C. Smith is one of the world's most respected climate scientists, whose work envisions the future of a warmed planet. His debut book, The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilizations Northern Future, is a work of enormous scope, cross-cutting themes of population demographics, globalization, natural resource demand, and climate change. It's science fiction without the fiction. How will the combination of a booming global population and global warming change the world? Which countries will struggle, and which will prosper? What kind of world are we leaving for our children and grandchildren? In sweeping talks, Smith outlines the changes that our world will face in the next 50 years, both geologically and societally.

Smith is the Professor and Vice-Chair of Geography and Professor of Earth & Space Sciences at UCLA and has published more than sixty research papers. In 2006, he briefed Congress on the likely impacts of northern climate change, and in 2007 his work appeared prominently in the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 2006-2007 he was named a Guggenheim Fellow by the John S. Guggenheim Foundation in New York. He has won more than $5M in external grant funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for his research on northern climate change. In 2011 he won the Walter P. Kistler Book Award for his book The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization's Northern Future. His work has received media coverage in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Discover Magazine, NPR, BBC, CBC Radio, and others.

Laurence Smith Speech Topics

The World in 2050

In this all encompassing talk, accompanied by stunning photographs and graphics, Laurence Smith presents a balanced, politically neutral based projection of what the world might look like in forty years' time, should current global trends in (1) population demographics, (2) resource demand, (3) economic globalization, and (4) climate change continue their current trajectories. The first part of the talk ("The Push") identifies key global pressures and trends, for example in urbanization, population aging, energy technology, water supply, immigration, and the rising economies of China, India and the developing world. The second part ("The Pull") describes the emergence of a new geographic region, which he coins the "Northern Rim", comprised of Canada, the northern United States, Greenland/Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Russian Federation (called the Northern Rim Countries or NORCs). These eight northern countries and their surrounding seas will experience profound transformation over the next 40 years, making the Northern Rim a place of rising human activity and global strategic value relative to today. A fascinating, cross-disciplinary talk, Smith gives audiences a glimpse into the future, and describes the world that we will leave to our children and grandchildren. One that is wholly different from the world we know today.

Canada in 2050

The image of a remote, sparsely populated, Canadian North might not be around for much longer. In this talk, UCLA geoscientist Laurence C. Smith outlines how Canada will look by 2050. While some of the world may be worse off by 2050, Canada and a group of northern countries Smith calls the "Northern Rim" will actually benefit from a warming planet. Smith expects Canada will experience an uptick in settlement of barren lands, and heightened northern strategic values from newly thawed trade routes. Canada's role as steward of the largest wilderness on the planet--with abundant water and other natural resources--will also come under pressure as demand for these resources increases with a swelling world population. This keynote contains valuable information for any Canadian firm eager for a forecast of the country's future migration, natural resource shifts, and political implications of this new era.

LINKS

The de-icing age - The Economist

BOOKS

The World in 2050

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