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DEMYSTIFYING THE FUTURE
Editor's Note: Significant and fast-paced change Is occurring across society in general and our profession in particular. With so much confusion in the air, NEHA is looking for a way to help our profession better understand what the future is likely to look like. The clearer our sense for the future is, the more able we are to both understand and take advantage of trends working their way through virtually every aspect of our lives today. To help us see what these trends are and where they appear to be taking us, NEHA has made arrangements to publish the critical thinking of the highly regarded futurist, Thomas Frey.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely that of the author and do not in any way reflect the policies and positions of NEHA and the Journal of Environmental Health.
Thomas Frey is Googlefc top-rated futurist speaker and the executive director of the DaVinci Institute®. At the Institute, he has developed original research studies enabling him to speak on unusual topics, translating trends into unique opportunities. Frey continually pushes the envelope of understanding, creating fascinating images of the world to come. His talks on futurist topics have captivated people ranging from high-level government officials to executives in Fortune 500 companies. He will be the keynote speaker at the NEHA 2012 AEC. He has also authored the book Communicating with the Future. Frey is a powerful visionary who is revolutionizing our thinking about the future.
Earlier this year I was honored to be one of the featured speakers at the TEDxReset Conference in Istanbul, Turkey, where I predicted that over two billion jobs will disappear by 2030. Since my 18-minute talk was about the rapidly shifting nature of colleges and higher education, I didn't have time to explain how and why so many jobs would be going away. Because of all of the questions I received afterwards, I will do that here.
When I brought up the idea of two billion jobs disappearing (roughly 50% of all the jobs on the planet) it wasn't intended as a doom and gloom outlook. Rather, it was intended as a wakeup call, letting the world know how quickly things are about to change, and letting academia...