Choosing A Future

A cautionary but optimistic book about the world’s changing climate and the fate of humanity, from Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac—who led negotiations for the United Nations during the historic Paris Agreement of 2015. The authors outline two possible scenarios for our planet. In one, they describe what life on Earth will be like by 2050 if we fail to meet the Paris Agreement’s climate targets. In the other, they lay out what it will be like to live in a regenerative world that has net-zero emissions. They argue for confronting the climate crisis head-on, with determination and optimism. The Future We Choose presents our options and tells us what governments, corporations, and each of us can, and must, do to fend off disaster.

Strategy requires an ability to conceive the future, see and create possibilities, and focus to choose a direction. Successful strategy is a mental discipline consisting of broad ranging, flexible, and creative thinking. Choosing the Future will help you achieve this success by studying fundamentals such as effective group thinking, knowing when to delay a decision for more information, balancing contrasting modes of thought, and transforming thought into action. Using a cycle to show the relationship among different strategic thinking tools, Choosing the Future gives you guidance to respond to these basic questions: What seems to be happening? What possibilities do we face? What are we going to do about it? Choosing the Future will help you advance your thinking skills. Rather than telling you what to do, it teaches you to use your business knowledge to discover your own ideas and strategic direction. Stuart Wells is Professor of Organization and Management at San Jose State University, where he serves as Director of the Center for Global Competitiveness and as Director of the Small Business Institute. As founder of the Leading Edge Consulting Group and co-founder of Corporate Wisdom, he has worked on leadership development and strategy issues with such major corporations as Clorox, Dupont, PepsiCo, and Proctor and Gamble. He is the author of several books, including From Sage to Artisan: The Nine Roles of the Value-Driven Leader.

The issue is no longer whether climate change is happening; it is rather what we should now be doing about it. Drawing together key thinkers and policy experts, this unique volume _ also a Special Issue of the Journal of Human Rights and the Environmen

"This is a hopeful but complicated era for those with ambitions to reform the juvenile courts and youth-serving public institutions in the United States. As advocates plea for major reforms, many fear the public backlash in making dramatic changes. Choosing the Future for American Juvenile Justice provides a look at the recent trends in juvenile justice as well as suggestions for reforms and policy changes in the future. Edited by Franklin E. Zimring and David S. Tanenhaus, two of the leading scholars on juvenile justice, and with contributors who are among the key experts on each issue, this essential volume focuses on the most pressing issues of the day: the impact of neuroscience on our understanding of brain development and subsequent sentencing, the relationship of schools and the police, the issue of the school-to-prison pipeline, the impact of immigration, the privacy of juvenile records, and the need for national policies - including registration requirements - for juvenile sex offenders. Choosing the Future for American Juvenile Justice is not only a timely collection, based on the most current research. It is also a forward-thinking volume that anticipates the needs for substantive changes in juvenile justice, linking the key current tasks of reform with a sustained analyses of the political strategies and rhetorical appeals that can make change happen"--Unedited summary from book cover.

Choosing Our Future is an introduction to the foundational choices we must all make as we seek to know ourselves. It probes the values that establish our character, defining our choices, our behaviors, and our future. If you feel like your life is not turning out as expected, or the journey is more difficult than you thought it would be; if you are looking for something to help you make a change, but you are not quite sure what that is; if you are a young person who would like to take charge of the choices that can set your direction, Choosing Our Future is for you.

A small city's big vision that can help transform your own community. We all want a sustainable future, but what does it look like, and how do we get there? In Ithaca, NY a new culture is blossoming-one that values cooperation, local production, environmental stewardship, social justice andcreativity. Ithaca is showing the way to meet the challenges of the day with a wide variety of practical, real-world solutions. Filled with inspiring examples, Choosing a Sustainable Future provides readers with a remarkable sense of possibility. Explore Ithaca's: bustling, vibrant farmers markets, overflowing with fresh, local produce award-winning community credit union that triples the savings of low-income people flagship college sustainability programs pioneering alternative transportation programs, such as Ithaca Carshare innovative efforts by coalitions of local business, university, government and activists to create transformation in areas as diverse as green building, city planning, health and wellness, and honoring cultural diversity. Taken together, these examples of citizen engagement are a taste of what life could be like in a sustainable city of the future. In a time of overwhelming economic, social and environmental crises, Choosing aSustainable Future provides a quiet, authoritative voice of hope.

Connected, autonomous, shared, and electric (CASE) vehicles could fundamentally change transportation, making it safer, cleaner, and more accessible. They also present new opportunities for Canadian industry, including in software development, motor vehicle and parts manufacturing, shared mobility services, infotainment, and infrastructure, as well as in data management, analytics, and security. Prototypes of low-speed autonomous shuttles and taxis are already being tested and are likely to appear on urban roads in the coming decades. There are autonomous delivery vehicles on the road today, and virtually every new vehicle currently being produced has some level of advanced driving assistance system and connectivity. These technologies will continue to evolve, connecting more vehicles to each other, to infrastructure, and to other users on the road. While their appearance in Canada may seem inevitable, the timing of their arrival and widespread adoption and acceptance remains uncertain, as does the likelihood that their benefits will be fully realized. Autonomous vehicles also raise important privacy and security concerns, could potentially worsen air quality and traffic congestion, and increase transportation inequities. Avoiding undesirable outcomes and achieving the benefits of CASE vehicles in Canada will require meeting significant technical and societal challenges and will depend on how industry, consumers, and governments respond to problems and opportunities today. Present-day planning and policy decisions related to public transit, ride sharing, and active transportation will affect how, when, and where CASE vehicles are used in Canada in the next 10, 20, and 50 years.

A mismatch between the federal government's revenues and spending, now and in the foreseeable future, requires heavy borrowing, leading to a large and increasing federal debt. That increasing debt raises a serious challenge to all of the goals that various people expect their government to pursue. It also raises questions about the nation's future wealth and whether too much debt could lead to higher interest rates and even to loss of confidence in the nation's long-term ability and commitment to honor its obligations. Many analysts have concluded that the trajectory of the federal budget set by current policies cannot be sustained. In light of these projections, Choosing the Nation's Fiscal Future assesses the options and possibilities for a sustainable federal budget. This comprehensive book considers a range of policy changes that could help put the budget on a sustainable path: reforms to reduce the rate of growth in spending for Medicare and Medicaid; options to reduce the growth rate of Social Security benefits or raise payroll taxes; and changes in many other government spending programs and tax policies. The book also examines how the federal budget process could be revised to be more far sighted and to hold leaders accountable for responsible stewardship of the nation's fiscal future. Choosing the Nation's Fiscal Future will provide readers with a practical framework to assess budget proposals for their consistency with long-term fiscal stability. It will help them assess what policy changes they want, consistent with their own values and their views of the proper role of the government and within the constraints of a responsible national budget. It will show how the perhaps difficult but possible policy changes could be combined to produce a wide range of budget scenarios to bring revenues and spending into alignment for the long term. This book will be uniquely valuable to everyone concerned about the current and projected fiscal health of the nation.