2011 Top Ten: 9. Fighting the global threat of climate change
could unite countries—or inflame rivalries. Nations with more
sophisticated environmental monitoring systems could use data to
their advantage, perhaps weakening an enemy by failing to warn
it of an oncoming storm or other catastrophe. They could also
fudge their own, or their rivals', carbon output numbers to
manipulate International legislation says forecaster Roger
Howard. One such potential monitoring system, sensor dust,
embedded computing, augmented reality, and a host of other
emerging technologies hold the potential to “awaken” cities as
digital environments providing more and more accurate data about
energy use, temperature, etc.. Nations that could afford such a
technology could use that data to their advantage, perhaps
unfairly. Futurist Jamais Cascio agrees that future
international diplomacy may increasingly focus on how to control
the climate. Some advocates believe geoengineering may become
imperative by 2015. However, the deliberate