predicting the future

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Texas Is Going to Need a Lot More Power Soon

It will need to provide almost double by 2030, according to state utility's latest prediction

(Newser) - Texas has had its share of power grid woes, and it may soon have more issues to contend with. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, the state's main power grid operator, has issued an updated prediction on the state's future power needs, and it's a...

Researchers: This Is 'Smoking Gun' on an Exxon Cover-Up

Oil giant made eerily accurate predictions on climate change, then misled public, scientists say

(Newser) - Who needs Nostradamus when we've got Exxon? The Guardian reports that "a trove of internal documents and research papers" has long established that Exxon, now known as ExxonMobil, knew since the 1970s of the dangers of global warming, and that other oil companies acknowledged the same decades before...

Johnson's Role in Brexit Predicted 22 Years Ago

Too bad flying cars are still a ways off

(Newser) - We're nearly a fifth of the way into the 21st century with no flying cars in sight. That's one prediction for the year 2020 that's gone by the wayside. But other predictions—from Brexit to fitness trackers to self-driving cars—turned out to be right on the...

Ancients 'Predicted the Future' With ... Flour?

Archaeologists uncover three shrines on Armenian hilltop

(Newser) - Archaeologists have discovered three ancient shrines where diviners apparently tried seeing the future with animal bones, small pebbles, or flour baked into little bread rolls, LiveScience reports. Ensconced in an Armenian fortress, the roughly 3,300-year-old shrines found between 2003 and 2011 each have a room containing a clay basin...

Global Warming Will Bring 'Global Weirding'
 Global Warming Will Bring 'Global Weirding'
ANALYSIS
Mar 21, 2009 2:41 AM CDT

Global Warming Will Bring 'Global Weirding'

(Newser) - While the physical changes brought on by global warming—droughts, floods, and the like—are fairly easy to model, the effect on ecosystems is disconcertingly unpredictable, John Waldman writes in Yale Environment 360. Species will shift migration patterns and seek new homes, affecting other species in ways we can't imagine....

It May Be 'Mayday!' for Commercial Aviation

Fuel prices, environmental concerns could make that cheap seat a luxury

(Newser) - The end of cheap oil means it’s “springtime for gloomy futurists,” Bradford Plumer writes in the New Republic, but we’re not headed for a Mad Max scenario just yet—unless you like cheap seats on airplanes. Jet fuel is approaching twice the price of a year...

Future Sunny for Solar Power
Future Sunny for Solar Power
Feb 20, 2008 1:26 PM CST

Future Sunny for Solar Power

Tech leap will enable replacement of fossil fuels in 20 years: panel

(Newser) - Don’t sweat the energy crisis, say scientist Ray Kurzweil and Google co-founder Larry Page, who predict that within 20 years we’ll be getting 100% of our energy from the sun, based on current solar technology and growth trends. Kurzweil’s fortune-telling record is pretty good: He foresaw the...

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