Mar 31, 2022 | Signals to Watch
Nan Nelson, Board member
In 2018 the Government Accountability Office established the Center for Strategic Foresight to identify major issues, challenges and opportunities. The latest report on trends affecting government and society provides a strategic plan for lawmakers, including key trends in a dozen areas:
- National security threats include a rise in violent extremism tied to conspiracy theories and misinformation.
- Federal debt – increasing federal debt makes a fiscal crisis more likely.
- Catastrophic biological incidents indicate the need for a more resilient medical chain.
- Racial and ethnic disparities in society are evident in housing, health and access to voting.
- Science and technology research and development – public investment is declining.
- Security issues arise from our increasing reliance on digital technology, and they include vulnerability to cybercrime and other threats.
- New technologies are changing the U.S. workforce.
- The Global Supply Chain is suffering disruptions due to the pandemic, trade wars and other global crises.
- Online learning and technology, increasing in use, present both opportunities and challenges.
- Evolving health technologies, such as artificial intelligence, yield efficiencies but raise privacy concerns.
- Critical natural resources – their availability is threatened in an increasingly stressed environment.
- Space is seeing increased use for national security, commercial and human exploration.
You can watch a short introductory video here or read the full report here.
Mar 18, 2022 | Signals to Watch
Tom Schumacher, Board member
Wisconsin, like every other state in the US, became more diverse between 2010 and 2020. In our state, diversity rose from 7.2% to 37% by the latest census measure. Throughout the nation, the non-Hispanic white population’s share of the population decreased while the number of Hispanic and Asian people grew. Hawaii is the most diverse state, and the least diverse county in the nation is along the Mexican border in Texas where 98% of the population is Hispanic.
The diversity measure used by the Census Bureau is based on the probability that two randomly chosen people from a given geographic area belong to different racial and ethnic groups, which ignores concentrations of ethnic populations within states. Individual counties in Wisconsin generally increased in diversity by 5% to 10%, with diversity in our home Brown County up by 9.4%.
Source: US Census Bureau as reported by USAFacts
Feb 12, 2022 | Signals to Watch
by Judy Nagel, Envision board
What if an issue endemic to northeast Wisconsin turned out to be a substantial contributor to global warming – and then someone turned it on its head and converted the problem into a whole new industry? Our area has done it before – all it needs is an altruistic entrepreneur.
The issue is about cows and burping. Yes, 30% of global warming is due to methane release, and one-third of that methane comes from livestock. In a single year one cow emits as much methane as a small car, and the reason is simple: Cows are gassy due to the roughage they eat, which results in lots of burping. The burping emits methane. Worldwide, 1.5 billion cows are eating, burping and creating methane – and a good portion of cows live in our area.
Researchers have found, however, that asparagopsis, a type of seaweed, can allow those cows to chow down without burping, nearly eliminating livestock methane emissions. Even better, if a mere two-tenths of one percent of a cow’s daily ration included such seaweed, maximum benefit could be achieved! Read interesting details from Salon: Can we grow enough seaweed to help cows fight climate change?
Using the environmental research resources of the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, access to the bay, carbon tax credits, and investment capital from Titletown Tech, could we develop a local suitable seaweed to harvest? We might create, at the same time, a new sustainable industry for the agricultural base of our economy!
