FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jennifer Lawrence (301)656-6272
June 17, 2008
Jeremy Rifkin’s Vision of a Third Industrial Revolution will be the subject of Principal Voices, a special CNN International documentary to be aired on Saturday, June 21 and Sunday, June 22.
Mr. Rifkin currently advises the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the presidency of the Council of the European Union on energy issues, climate change, and sustainable development.
The Third Industrial Revolution narrative has become a critical centerpiece of the European Union economic game plan to address the global energy crisis and climate change.
Washington, DC—Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends, has been named “Big Thinker” on the Economics of Energy by CNN’s Principal Voices. A 30 minute documentary will be aired over the weekend of June 21 and 22 on CNN International. Principal Voices addresses the major challenges facing our world by bringing together some of the world's leading thinkers. Jeremy Rifkin has been involved in the critical issues of climate change, energy security, globalization, and sustainable development for nearly 30 years.
Rifkin says that we are on the cusp of a Third Industrial Revolution. According to Rifkin, “the same design principles and smart technologies that made possible the internet, and vast ‘distributed’ global communication networks, are just beginning to be used to reconfigure the world’s power grids so that people can produce renewable energy and share it peer-to-peer, just like they now produce and share information, creating a new, decentralized form of energy use.”
Rifkin asks us to “envision a future in which millions of individuals can collect and produce locally generated renewable energy in their homes, offices, and factories, store that energy in the form of hydrogen, and share their power generation with each other across a continental intelligent intergrid.”
Hans-Gert Pöttering, the President of the European Parliament told delegates at a EU-wide climate change conference last week that the “European Union’s priority task in the first half of the 21st century will be --- to quote Jeremy Rifkin—‘to lead the way to the Third Industrial Revolution.’”
§ Click here to preview the upcoming special on CNN International Principal Voices;
§ Click here to read the white paper on Jeremy Rifkin’s vision of the Third Industrial Revolution;
§ Click here to read the European Energy Review interview with Jeremy Rifkin.
Mr. Rifkin serves as an advisor to the European Union on issues related to the economy, climate change, energy security, and sustainable development. He is currently advising the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša, during his presidency of the European Union (January to July 2008). Mr. Rifkin served as an advisor to the Federal Republic of Germany during Chancellor Angela Merkel’s presidency of the European Union (January to July 2007). Mr. Rifkin also served as an advisor to the Prime Minister of Portugal, Jose Socrates, during his presidency of the European Union (July to December 2007). Mr. Rifkin currently serves as an advisor to the European Commission, the European Parliament, and several EU heads of state, including Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain.He teaches at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program at the University of Pennsylvania, and is the author of The Hydrogen Economy. Mr. Rifkin is president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, DC. To read more on Mr. Rifkin’s work and current activities, please visit: www.foet.org
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