Joel Kotkin, Noted Futurist, Authority of Global, Economic, Political and
Social Trends, to Speak at O.C. Water Summit
By David Cordero, Municipal Water District of Orange County
“In stark contrast to the rest of the world’s advanced nations, the United States is growing at a
record rate and, according to census projections, will be home to four hundred million Americans
by 2050. This projected rise in population is the strongest indicator of our long-term economic
strength and will make us more diverse and more competitive than any nation on earth.”
Such is the conclusion of Joel Kotkin, an internationally-recognized authority on global,
economic, political and social trends, in his latest book, The Next Hundred Million: American in
2050. Kotkin is one of the featured panelists who will discuss Water Supplies’ Impact on
California, the United States and the Global Economy at the Orange County Water Summit on
Friday, May 14, 2010.
For more than three decades, Kotkin has been one of the nation's most prolific and widelypublished journalists. He currently writes the weekly “New Geographer” column for Forbes.com
and for several years wrote the monthly "Grass Roots Business" column in The New York
Times' Sunday Business section. He is also a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The
Washington Post, The American, Inc. Magazine, Newsweek, and on Politico.com. He is also the
author of The City: A Global History; The New Geography, How the Digital Revolution is
Reshaping the American Landscape; Tribes: How Race, Religion and Identity Determine
Success In the New Global Economy; and California, Inc., which addresses California’s links to
the emergent powers of the Pacific Rim.
Additionally, Kotkin maintains scholarly positions at a number of universities and institutions
including Distinguished Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange,
California; Adjunct Fellow with the Legatum Institute based in London, UK; Senior Fellow with
the Center for an Urban Future in New York City; and Senior Consultant with the Praxis
Strategy Group in Fargo, North Dakota.
In "The Next Hundred Million", Kotkin reveals how unprecedented growth will take physical
shape and change the face of America. The majority of the additional hundred million Americans
will find their homes in suburbia, though the suburbs of tomorrow will not resemble the
Levittowns of the 1950s or the sprawling exurbs of the late twentieth century. The suburbs of the
twenty-first century will be less reliant on major cities for jobs and other amenities and, as a
result, more energy efficient. Suburbs will also be the melting pots of the future as more and
more immigrants opt for dispersed living over crowded inner cities and the majority in the
United States becomes nonwhite by 2050. Focusing not on power brokers, policy disputes, or
abstract trends, but rather on the evolution of the more intimate units of American society —
families, towns, neighborhoods, industries — Kotkin argues it is upon the success or failure of
these communities that the American future rests.”
Kotkin will speak more about this future America at the summit and how resource management,
and particularly the provision and management of water, will be among the major factors driving
not only our national and global economies, but life as we currently know it. What impact will
the social and political considerations that drive so much state and federal policy making today
have on future generations? Will water delivery cutbacks and supply shortages become the new
normal for California? What will the long-term effects be on agriculture, industry and
commerce, jobs, and more if things remain business as usual? What are the long-term challenges
confronting California and what opportunities are in store? These are just a few of the questions
Kotkin will touch upon at the O.C. Water Summit on Friday, May 14, 2010.
eCurrents: April 2010