World Futures Fall 2021

"For cities to catch up, they need to apply a data-driven approach similar to what farms are using to more effectively grow crops. Cities must start supporting urban agriculture in targeted ways that work with the urban agriculture industry to transform our current food production and distribution systems into smarter, more localized, and more resilient networks."

"Given that 95 per cent of per capita calorie consumption worldwide comes from crops that grow directly in the soil or from food sources that indirectly rely on it, the symbolic maternal relationship between fertile soil and human life is profound...A system of agriculture, that places healthy soil at the foundation of bountiful and nutrient-rich crops, should form the basis of what 'The Power of the Plate' refers to as a model of "Regenerative Healthcare" in which neither soil nor humans are treated with toxic chemicals."

DRIVER-POLITICS Many political factors impacted the development of the Colorado River Compact (now known as the Colorado River Basin Water Agreement, or CRBWA). These political factors included politicians, political agencies, legislation, and political pressure groups/lobbyists. This paper will present an in-depth administrative analysis of the impact of politics on the CRBWA. It will include historical and theoretical research, as well as interviews with present-day politicians in order to answer questions relating to the impact of politics on the original agreement. Some of the major questions asked were: What politics impacted the CRBWA and how did they affect its creation? Has the agreement achieved its goals and mission? Why or why not? What changes could be made to the CRBWA to help achieve the agreement's mission and goals?

DRIVER-POLITICS-INFRASTRUCTURE-TREATEMENT Criminal Charges Filed Against 6 Officials Schuette announced criminal charges against six more current and former state employees, bringing the total number of people charged to nine. Liane Shekter-Smith is the former director of the drinking water and municipal assistance office within the MDEQ. She and two subordinates, Adam Rosenthal and Patrick Cook, allegedly misled officials about Flint's water treatment plant, which was not in compliance with lead and copper rules. The other three people charged are current or former employees of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The director of the child health unit, Nancy Peeler, her subordinate, Robert Scott, and a state epidemiologist Corinne Miller allegedly failed to release a report that showed unsafe lead levels in the blood of Flint children. All six are charged with misconduct in office, conspiracy, and willful neglect of duty. Rosenthal is also charged with tampering with evidence, for allegedly requesting water tests that did not show elevated lead.

"More than 2,400 families have started their own gardens, and seven new permanent market spaces have been created. Shorter, localised food supply chains help the city reduce carbon emissions by producing 2,500 tons of fruits and vegetables each year. Compared to imports, local food production has been shown to reduce emissions by 95 per cent."

USDA's 2020 Household Food Security Report - "This report provides statistics on food security in U.S. households throughout 2020 based on the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement data collected in December 2020. An estimated 89.5 percent of U.S. households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2020, with access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households (10.5 percent, unchanged from 10.5 percent in 2019) were food insecure at least some time during the year, including 3.9 percent with very low food security (not significantly different from 4.1 percent in 2019). "

But by late 2019, Aurora's emphasis had shifted. It said self-driving trucks, not cars, would be quicker to hit public roads en masse. Its executives, who had steadfastly refused to provide a timeline for their self-driving-car software, now say trucks equipped with its "Aurora Driver" will hit the roads in 2023 or 2024, with ride-hail vehicles following a year or two later.

Estimates from the American Trucking Association suggest there are 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the United States and the industry, as a whole, employs more than 8.7 million people. According to the Los Angeles Times, 1.7 million American truckers could be replaced by self-driving trucks over the next decade.

You know that universal sign we give truckers, hoping they'll sound their air horns? Well, you're gonna be hearing a lot less honking in the future. And with good reason. The absence of an actual driver in the cab. We may focus on the self-driving car, but autonomous trucking is not an if, it's a when. And the when is coming sooner than you might expect. As we first reported last year, companies have been quietly testing their prototypes on public roads

Self-driving commercial trucks could regularly operate alongside the motoring public on U.S. highways sooner than many may think, particularly as the industry moves beyond prototypes to real-world, on-road testing. However, the shift likely will be gradual and largely dependent on commercial truck OEMs, regulations, and gaining public acceptance.

The integrated corridor management (ICM) approach is based on three fundamental concepts: a corridor-level "nexus" to operations; agency integration through institutional, operational, and technical means; and active management of all available, and hopefully participating, corridor assets and facilities. Each of these concepts is described below

Driverless trucks are already heading out to the highway, as shipping companies increasingly look to autonomous technology to meet rising demand for goods. The focus now: determining the best way to hand off trailers from machine to human.

What would most revolutionize logistics over the next few years? The most obvious answer is autonomous trucking. But when will this technology become operational? Will it take decades? A decade? Or can we get there in the next few years? That is the core question.

With the trucking industry continuing to move forward, the main thing on truck drivers' minds is the security of their jobs. Let's take a closer look at self-driving trucks quickly becoming a reality.

When autonomous trucks arrive, the learning curve will be steep. But a few easy preparations today can help make that eventual transition from manned trucks to autonomous ones go a lot more smoothly.

Fully electric trucks, often referred to as commercial battery electric trucks, are reaching wider-scale consideration as truck, engine, and other component makers are developing the systems that will support such vehicles. Battery and power-electronic development has progressed to make these trucks viable in certain applications. These trucks will have many benefits (more renewable energy, simpler design, etc.), but come with challenges (need for new infrastructure, development investments, etc.).

We all have a futuristic vision of lonely robot trucks running alone through a dark desert night in our heads. But, in reality, the first automated commercial vehicle you see "in the wild," will most likely be a truck or van running in a controlled area - possibly under some sort of remote human control or monitoring. For most of us, this probably will be some sort of airport or hotel shuttle bus, running a dedicated route on a dedicated timetable, performing a monotonous, but demanding, task over and over again.