Congressman Steven Israel Describes the World in 2030
By Richard Harris
Director & Professor of Humanities/ Assistant Dean
In the eighteenth presentation in the Alfred M. Zeien Lecture Series, Long Island Congressman Steven Israel spoke on April 8th about the latest “National Intelligence Council Report on Global Trends.”
Congressman Israel began by asking the questions, “What will the world be like in 2030?” and “Will that world be safe, secure, and prosperous?” These are some of the questions that the National Intelligence Council addresses in reports issued every four years.
In a “ten-minute tour of the world” in 2030, Israel identified five operative megatrends, each of which has both positive and negative consequences:
- the creation of a much larger middle class, especially in Russia, India, China, and Brazil;
- the largest expansion of the elderly in human history;
- the concentration of 60% of the world’s population in cities;
- the continued and even more rapid growth of technology; and
- terrorist conflicts and asymmetric wars fought not over ideologies but over resources, i.e., food, water, and energy.
According to Congressman Israel, this is a pivotal moment in American history in which we will have to make the right decisions. If we do so, he said, the world of 2030 can be “absolutely superb.” The history of our country has been marked by our having made the right decisions in the past; it is imperative that we do so now. The presentation was followed by a very interesting question-and-answer session.
The Webb campus enjoyed a reception after the lecture.