ASI greenbelt proposals feature in the Evening Standard

The Adam Smith Institute has featured in the Evening Standard for our position on the Green Belt. We advocate reducing regulations around building on Green Belt land, in order to resolve the growing housing crisis:

To date only the Right-wing think tank the Adam Smith Institute has advocated the alternative of sacrificing some of London’s heavily-protected “green lung” for housing.

Read the full article here.

Britain’s Nostradamus Drives a Tesla | Dr. Madsen Pirie is interviewed for The Drive

President of the ASI, Dr. Madsen Pirie, was interviewed by The Drive website to discuss his predictions for the future of transport. He talks about his latest paper, "The UK and the world in 2050", and discusses his predictions that cars will be driverless, and energy will be free.

Not that there’ll be much distinction between home and car, mind. Another goodly chunk of the 2050 report describes the coming age of our robot overlords, who might let us sleep in—all the way to work. “I’m predicting that when we do have driverless cars, there can be sofas in them. You could have a bed. The whole layout of ‘two seats here, two seats there’ is completely outmoded. All you need to tell the car is where to go.”

Read the full article here.

Dr Madsen Pirie discusses his new report "The UK and the world in 2050" on BBC 5 Live

President of the ASI, Dr Madsen Pirie, has gone on BBC 5 Live to discuss his latest paper "The UK and the world in 2050". In it he discusses his predictions for life in the future, including technological advances such as robots and GM crops, and dramatic increases in living standards. Listen to the full interview here. (Starts 01:08:52)

"The UK and the world in 2050" features in The Times and The Telegraph

The new ASI paper, "The UK and the world in 2050" has featured in the Times and the Telegraph. The paper suggests a variety of ways in which life will be different in the future, and even states that people will be twice as rich in real terms, and extinct animals will be brought back. From the Times:

In a paper from the Adam Smith Institute, Madsen Pirie, president of the free-market think tank, outlines trends in scientific research and makes predictions about how new technology will solve the energy, environmental and health problems of today.

Workers long accustomed to stagnant pay after years of austerity can look forward to earning twice as much in real terms by 2050, thanks to an average 2 per cent annual growth rate.

and from the Telegraph:

Today's teenagers will live like millionaires by the time they are middle-aged because of improvements in living standards, a respected think-tank has said.

Dr Pirie also predicts that several species of dinosaur will be recreated and roam the earth for the first time in 66 million years.

Read the full Times article here.

Real the Telegraph article here.

New ASI paper "The UK and the world in 2050" features in the Sun and the Mail Online

The latest ASI paper "The UK and the world in 2050", written by President Dr Madsen Pirie, has featured on the Mail Online and in The Sun newspaper. The paper makes a number of predictions about what life will be like in 2050, including the rise of GM foods, lab grown meat and driverless cars! From the Sun:

TODAY’S teens will live like millionaires in robot-run homes by the time they hit middle age, a think tank says.

Driverless cars and supersonic planes will also become the norm by 2050.

The Adam Smith Institute predictions also include an end to major diseases and an environmental boost from fast-growing GM trees.

Read the full article here.

And from the Mail Online:

Imagine a world dominated by robots cars and planes, lab grown burgers and even the end of people going bald - and one where everyone could live like today's millionaires.

That is the picture painted today by the Adam Smith Institute which has predicted what Britain and the world might be like as soon as 2050.

As well as being wealthier, the researchers predict everyone will have more leisure time and be much healthier - with many of today's killer diseases like cancer defeated, degenerative illnesses like dementia cured and new organs routinely grown in a lab.

Read the full Mail article here.

ASI paper "The New Aristocrats" featured in the Guardian

ASI paper, "The New Aristocrats" has featured in the Guardian for its argument that virtue signalling is the new way the 'elite' show their status in society:

According to economists, ostentatious displays of wealth and privilege have become passe, crass and distasteful. The modern way to patronise our fellow humans is to put a bit more thought into it. So instead of impressing with designer handbags, flashy cars and massive rocks, the elite are repackaging their privilege to make them look less disgusting; they’re eco-friendly, they buy Fairtrade and donate to charity.

Read the full article here.

New ASI paper features on BBC Radio Scotland and four other regional stations

The latest ASI paper, "The UK and the world in 2050", featured on BBC Radio Scotland this morning, as well as BBC Radio Essex, Derby, Hereford and Worcester, and the Asian Network. The paper, written by ASI President Dr Madsen Pirie, suggests that in 2050 innovations such as driverless cars will be the norm, and people in the UK will be earn twice as much in real terms as they do today. Listen to BBC Radio Scotland here. (Starts 18:58)

Press Release: Britons in 2050 will use GM trees to fight climate change and grow their meat in laboratories, says new report

For further comments or to arrange an interview, contact Sam Bowman, at sam@adamsmith.org | 07584 778207.

• New paper predicts technological solutions to today's social and environmental problems, such as climate change
• Economic growth will mean that Britons in 2050 earn twice as much as they do today
• Self-driving cars will reduce city densities and allow people to work or sleep during their commute

Britain will use fast-growing trees to capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide by 2050 and most of Britain’s energy needs will come from gas, solar and nuclear power, not wind, according to a new monograph released today (Monday) by the Adam Smith Institute.

The paper, The UK and the World in 2050, by Adam Smith Institute President Dr Madsen Pirie, looks at trends in scientific research and makes predictions about how new technology will change how ordinary Britons live their lives and solve the energy, environmental and health problems currently facing Britons.

People in the UK will be earn twice as much in real terms by 2050 as they do today. An average 2% annual growth rate will achieve this. The people of 2050 will live at the standard of today's millionaires.

Agriculture will have experienced a green revolution, with genetically modified crops that are self-fertilizing, pest-resistant, saline tolerant, drought resistant, altitude capable, heat tolerant and cold tolerant, and ones that can grow on land previous thought insufficiently fertile. Many of these will be developed in UK laboratories and universities, as will trees that can mature in 6 years instead of 50. Tree cover will be many times what it is today.

New genetically hybridized vegetables will be available to eat, the paper says, as will inexpensive lab-grown meats, bringing an end to factory farming as we know it and delivering substantial environmental gains, as well as freeing up large amounts of land for recreational use. Micro-organisms will be developed to produce nourishing food very cheaply and in abundance.

Looking at healthcare, the paper suggests that the NHS will have been radically reformed by 2050. The state will own no hospitals outright, nor employ ant doctors or nurses. People will choose state-funded healthcare from a variety of private institutions, many non-profit and some for profit.

Driverless electric vehicles will be the norm, with petrol and diesel engines banned from cities. They will be free to re-charge. Inside they will not have two rows of forward-facing seats, but some will be customized as extensions of the home or office, some even with folding beds. People will be prepared to commute longer, given such comforts, and this might make city housing less attractive and therefore less expensive.

The paper argues that behavioural change is secondary in solving social problems after technological adaptation. Environmental challenges are better overcome by investing in new technologies than in trying to make people consume less, the paper says.

Commenting on the paper, the Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute Sam Bowman said:

“Futurology can often tell us as much about the present as it does about the future. In this paper we have shown just how many of our current problems are on their way to being solved, not by changing people, but by changing the world around us. Dr Pirie’s vision for the future is an optimistic one that sees human ingenuity as the key to improving people’s lives around the world.

"The future often looks bleak because we focus on the negatives – but the reality is that things are getting better, much better, all the time.”

Notes to Editors:

For further comments or to arrange an interview, contact Sam Bowman, at sam@adamsmith.org | 07584 778207.

To download The UK and the World in 2050, click here.

The Adam Smith Institute is a free market, libertarian think tank based in London. It advocates classically liberal public policies to create a richer, freer world.

Kate Andrews discusses the gender pay gap in Sky News and the BBC's Daily Politics

Head of Communications at the ASI, Kate Andrews, was on the BBC's Daily Politics and also Sky News, to discuss the government's proposals to make companies publish their gender wage gap statistics. Kate argues the figures are misleading, as they do not compare jobs like for like. On Daily Politics:

On Sky News:

Ben Southwood discusses the gender wage gap on ITV News and BBC 2

Head of Research at the ASI, Ben Southwood, was on ITV News and BBC2 explaining why government regulations forcing companies to publish gender wage gap statistics are wrong, and can be deeply misleading. On ITV News:

And on BBC2: