Geoengineering on the horizon? | Hinesight....for Foresight

One of my alert grad students at the Houston Futures Program, Dennis Coffey, sent me a nice piece — The business of cooling the planet — from Fortune on Bill Gates getting mobilized around global environmental issues, and when Gates and the Gates Foundation get involved, things happen.

The article points out that Gates has been convinced that the risk of global warming is worse than most people think. What intrigued me was that as a result, he has become the world’s leading funder of research ($4.6 million) into geoengineering — deliberate, large-scale interventions in the earth’s climate system intended to prevent it.

It reminded me of forecasts we did at the old Coates & Jarratt, Inc. under the auspices of Joe Coates. Joe has always been an advocate of geo-engineering — we often used the term macroengineering. So, I looked for some of our thoughts on the topic. In the review of forecasts from 2025 I did a few years back — How Accurate Are Your Forecasts? — the evaluation of the macroengineering was that it would “need a boost” to occur by 2025. I said: We haven’t seen much progress here [in macroengineering], and there have been growing questions about whether this is a desirable strategy. Maybe Gates will provide the boost? Andy Hines

About Andy Hines

Dr. Andy Hines is Program Coordinator at the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight, bringing together the experience he earned as an organizational, consulting, and academic futurist. He is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight.

Before that, he was Managing Director of Social Technologies/Innovaro, and served as an Adjunct Professor with the university since 2004. Hines enjoyed earlier careers as a consulting and organizational futurist. He was a partner with Coates & Jarratt, Inc., a think tank and consulting firm that specialized in the study of the future. He was also Futurist & Senior Ideation Leader at Dow Chemical with a mission of using futures tools and knowledge to turn ideas into new business opportunities. Before that, Hines established and ran the Global Trends Program for the Kellogg Company.

Hines is motivated by a professional hunger to make foresight practical and useful, and he believes that foresight can help deliver the insight that is so needed in today’s organizations and the world. His goal, he says, is to infect as many change agents as possible with this message. Thus, he has honed a skill set designed to make foresight more actionable in organizations.

In this pursuit, he has authored five books: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape (No Limits Publishing, 2011); Thinking About the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (Social Technologies, 2007); 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society (Oak Hill, 1997); and Managing Your Future as an Association (ASAE, 1994) and has another in the hands of publishers: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education. He has also authored dozens of articles, speeches, and workshops, including the 2003 Emerald Literati Awards’ Outstanding Paper accolade for best article published in Foresight for “An Audit for Organizational Futurists” and the 2008 award for “Scenarios: The State of the Art.” He has appeared on several radio and television programs, PBS Houston, KRIV-26 News, and the CBS “Early Show.” He also co-founded and is former Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.

About Andy Hines

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