Laurence C. Smith, PhD

about the author

Laurence C. Smith, PhD

Scientist and Author of The World in 2050

Dr. Laurence C. Smith is Professor and Vice-Chair of Geography and Professor of Earth & Space Sciences at UCLA.  He earned a B.S. in Geological Sciences from the University of Illinois (1989), M.S. in geological sciences from Indiana University (1991), and Ph.D. in Earth and atmospheric sciences from Cornell University (1996). He has published more than sixty research papers including in the journals Science and Nature.

In 2006, he briefed Congress on the likely impacts of northern climate change, and in 2007 his work appeared prominently in the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 2006-2007 he was named a Guggenheim Fellow by the John S. Guggenheim Foundation in New York. He has won more than $5M in external grant funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for his research on northern climate change. Other honors include a NASA Young Investigator award (2000), Finalist for NASA's Presidential Early Career Award (2002), and a Bellagio Residency from the John D. Rockefeller Foundation (2007).

In 2011 he won the Walter P. Kistler Book Award for his book The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization's Northern Future (Dutton: New York; U.K. edition titled The New North: The World in 2050, Profile: London, 2011), which describes cross-cutting themes of population demographics, globalization, natural resource demand, and climate change. His work has received media coverage in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Discover Magazine, NPR, BBC, CBC Radio, and others.

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Laurence Smith on the World in 2050 at the US Consulate in Frankfurt, Germany

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The World in 2050 Buy Now

The World in 2050

"Though dismayed by many trends, Mr. Smith is in the main an optimist regarding technology and human ingenuity…The clock, this important book shows, is ticking."

—Time

"It’s really a tour de force."

—Discover Magazine

Speaking Topics

  • The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Our Northern Future

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Speaking Topics — Laurence C. Smith, PhD

 

The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Our Northern Future

This talk, accompanied by stunning photographs and graphics, will present a balanced, politically neutral based projection of what the world might look like in forty years' time, should current global trends in (1) population demographics, (2) resource demand, (3) economic globalization, and (4) climate change continue their current trajectories. The first part of the talk ("The Push") identifies key global pressures and trends, for example in urbanization, population aging, energy technology, water supply, immigration, and the rising economies of China, India and the developing world. The second part ("The Pull") describes the emergence of a new geographic region, which I coin the "Northern Rim", comprised of Canada, the northern United States, Greenland/Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Russian Federation (called the Northern Rim Countries or NORCs). These eight northern countries and their surrounding seas will experience profound transformation over the next 40 years, making the Northern Rim a place of rising human activity and global strategic value relative to today.

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