(with Enric Ruiz Geli and Diploma 18 students)
The Industrial Revolution, powered by oil and other fossil fuels, is spiralling into a dangerous endgame. The price of energy and food is climbing, unemployment remains high, the housing market has tanked, consumer and government debt is soaring, and the recovery is slowing. The prospect of a second collapse of the global economy leaves humanity desperate for a sustainable economic game plan for the future.
In his book, The Third Industrial Revolution (forthcoming 2011), Rifkin describes how the five-pillars of the Third Industrial Revolution will create innumerable businesses and jobs, and usher in a fundamental reordering of human relationships, from hierarchical to lateral power, that will impact on the conduct of business, governance, education and civic life.
Jeremy Rifkin is president and founder of the Foundation on Economic Trends and the author of many books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. He is the principal architect of the European Union’s Third Industrial Revolution long-term economic sustainability plan, which was formally endorsed by the European Parliament in 2007 and is now being implemented by agencies within the European Commission as well as in the 27 member-states.
The lecture will be broadcast live into the street, accompanying the Diploma 18 projection – see below.
Read Jeremy Rifkin’s article: ‘Only An Energy Internet Can Ward Off Disaster’ (FT 10.5.2010)
Followed by:
Diploma 18 Projection
Monday 7 November, 7.30 facade of 32 to 39 Bedford Square
Stunning projections created by Diploma 18, led by Enric Ruiz-Geli, across the entire facade of the school will show how the AA – and other businesses, homes and people – can rethink the future of power generation, their role in society, work and the city. Linked with the broadcast of Rifkin’s lecture (see above), the projection mapping will illuminate the environmental analysis of the AA School on a one-to-one scale, showing how it could become a zero-emissions building – a power plant harvesting renewable energy sources while also demonstrating how these technologies can be used to transform cities.