News stories by Hazel Henderson

ST AUGUSTINE, Florida, Jun 17 (IPS) - We humans are at the absurd stage in our technological evolution when we seem to have abandoned our common sense. Billions are spent by governments, corporations and investors in training computer-based algorithms (i.e. computer programs) in today's mindless rush to create so-called "artificial" intelligence, widely advertised as AI.

ST. Augustine, Florida, May 31 (IPS) - Today we are saturated with media hype about the joys of information and communication technology (ICT). We will all be connected, all the time, by the Idiocy of Things (IoT )devices and our social media, all converging in the cloud. Our lives will be monitored by smart sensors in homes with smart refrigerators, toasters, TVs, doorbells, alarm systems, garages, cars and electricity meters. We are bombarded with ads showing us how all these smart devices will improve our lives and health, bringing ever greater convenience. Driverless cars will be safer, allowing us to read, monitor our kids or enjoy the scenery. All this ICT and automation is already a multi-billion dollar industry and its producers are salivating over its growth and profits. Individual privacy rights and security concerns seem to be an afterthought.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida, Dec 02 (IPS) - Civil society organizations, known as NGOs, have for decades used their non-government status to prod officials, politicians and business on climate issues. Veteran campaigners Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam, Kenya's tree planters, India's Chipko tree-hugging protectors and indigenous movements worldwide first raised the issues of protecting the Earth and its atmosphere.

MIAMI, Florida, Nov 17 (IPS) - We humans are acutely aware of risks. From our earliest times, the risks we faced were from hunger, predatory animals, extreme environmental conditions and, as our numbers grew, from other human tribes.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida, Aug 27 (IPS) - Millions in the New York City area are excited about Pope Francis' visit on Sep. 25 to address the U.N. General Assembly as worldwide consensus grows on the need to shift global investments from fossil fuels to clean, efficient, renewable energy in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) scheduled to replace the expiring Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). 

ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida, Jun 20 (IPS) - Challenges to advertisers and marketers arose in the past century. Critics deplored the role of cigarette marketers who exploited the aspirations of women by associating smoking with liberation. 

ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida, May 23 (IPS) - Japanese Buddhist and president of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Daisaku Ikeda's Peace Proposal 2014 elevated my focus from the daily news to my longer term concerns for more peaceful, equitable and sustainable human societies to assure our common future. These broader concerns are now shared by millions of humans who have transcended purely personal, local and nationalistic goals and become prototypical global citizens.

ST.AUGUSTINE, Florida, Mar 04 (IPS) - Providing water for our still growing human population is reaching crisis levels. Water is vital for agriculture, energy production and industrial processes worldwide. Floods and droughts in Asia, Latin America, Europe and the United States accompanied unprecedented typhoons and winter storms. While none could be linked directly to climate change, the debate surfaced. Mainstream media started covering these issues more broadly.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida, Dic 17 (IPS) - The debate over structural unemployment, automation and jobless economic growth began in the 1960s as car factories replaced workers with robots.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida, Sep 09 (IPS) - As our climate destabilises, floods inundate cities, wildfires burn forests, droughts kill our crops and manmade radioactive isotopes leach into our soil and water, many accountants and policy analysts are waking up. They are joined by NGOs, civic leaders, whistle-blowers and a few public-minded politicians.