Jeremy Rifkin

Jeremy Rifkin
Born	January 26, 1945 Denver, Colorado
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania; Tufts University
Era	Contemporary
Region	Western philosophy
Main interests	Economy, political science, scientific and technological change
Notable ideas	The Empathic Civilization, The Third Industrial Revolution, End of the working society

Jeremy Rifkin (born January 26, 1945) is an American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker, political advisor, and activist. Rifkin is the author of 20 books about the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. His most recent books include The Zero Marginal Cost Society (2014), The Third Industrial Revolution (2011), The Empathic Civilization (2010), The European Dream (2004), The Hydrogen Economy (2002), The Age of Access (2000), The Biotech Century (1998), and The End of Work (1995).

Jeremy Rifkin has been an advisor to the European Union since 2000. He has advised the past three presidents of the European Commission and their leadership teams – President Romano Prodi, President Jose-Manuel Barroso, and the current President Jean-Claude Juncker. Rifkin has also served as an advisor to the leadership of the European Parliament and numerous heads of state, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain, Prime Minister Jose Socrates of Portugal, and Prime Minister Janez Jansa of Slovenia, during their respective European Council Presidencies, on issues related to the economy, climate change, and energy security.

Rifkin is the principal architect of the Third Industrial Revolution long-term economic sustainability plan to address the triple challenge of the global economic crisis, energy security, and climate change.^[1] The Third Industrial Revolution was formally endorsed by the European Parliament in 2007 and is now being implemented by various agencies within the European Commission.^[2]

Rifkin has also been advising the leadership of the People's Republic of China in recent years. The Huffington Post reported from Beijing on October 29 2015 that "Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has not only read Jeremy Rifkin's book, The Third Industrial Revolution, and taken it to heart. He and his colleagues have also made it the core of the country's thirteenth Five-Year Plan..." The Huffington Post goes on to say that "this blueprint for China's future signals the most momentous shift in direction since the death of Mao and the advent of Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening up in 1978."^[3] According to EurActiv, "Jeremy Rifkin is an American economist and author whose best-selling Third Industrial Revolution arguably provided the blueprint for Germany's transition to a low-carbon economy, and China's strategic acceptance of climate policy."^[4]

Rifkin has been a senior lecturer at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program at the University of Pennsylvania since 1995, where he instructs CEOs and senior management on transitioning their business operations into sustainable economies. Rifkin is ranked #123 in the WorldPost / HuffingtonPost 2015 global survey of "The World's Most Influential Voices." He is also listed among the top 10 most influential economic thinkers in the survey.^[5] Rifkin has lectured before many Fortune 500 companies, and hundreds of governments, civil society organizations, and universities over the past thirty five years.^[6]

Rifkin is also the President of the TIR Consulting Group, LLC,^[7] comprising many of the leading renewable energy companies, electricity transmission companies, construction companies, architectural firms, IT and electronics companies, and transport and logistics companies. His global economic development team is working with cities, regions, and national governments to develop the Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure for a Collaborative Commons and a Third Industrial Revolution. The TIR Consulting Group LLC is currently working with the regions of Hauts-de-France in France,^[8] the Metropolitan Region of Rotterdam and The Hague,^[9] and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg^[10] in the conceptualization, build-out, and scale-up of a smart Third Industrial Revolution infrastructure to transform their economies.

Biography

Youth and education

Rifkin was born in Denver, Colorado, to Vivette Ravel Rifkin, daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants to Texas,^[11] and Milton Rifkin, a plastic-bag manufacturer. He grew up on the southwest side of Chicago. He was president of the graduating class of 1967 at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Economics at the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce. Mr. Rifkin was also the recipient of the University of Pennsylvania's General Alumni Association's Award of Merit 1967.^[12] He had an epiphany when one day in 1967 he walked past a group of students protesting the Vietnam War and picketing the administration building and was amazed to see, as he recalls, that "my frat friends were beating the living daylights out of them. I got very upset." He organized a freedom-of-speech rally the next day. From then on, Rifkin quickly became an active member of the peace movement. He attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (MA, International Affairs, 1968) where he continued anti-war activities. Later he joined Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA).

1970s

In 1973, Rifkin organized a mass protest against oil companies at the commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party at Boston's Harbor. Thousands joined the protest, as activists dumped empty oil barrels into Boston's Harbor. The protest came in the wake of the increase in gasoline prices in the fall of 1973, following the OPEC oil embargo.^[13] This was later called "Boston Oil Party" by the press.^[14]

In 1978, with Ted Howard, he founded the Foundation on Economic Trends (FOET), which is active in both national and international public policy issues related to the environment, the economy, and climate change. FOET examines new trends and their impacts on the environment, the economy, culture and society, and engages in litigation, public education, coalition building and grassroots organizing activities to advance their goals. Rifkin became one of the first major critics of the nascent biotechnology industry with the 1978 publication of his book, Who Should Play God?^[15]

1980s

Rifkin's 1981 book Entropy: A New World View discusses how the physical concept of entropy applies to nuclear and solar energy, urban decay, military activity, education, agriculture, health, economics, and politics. It was called "A comprehensive worldview" and "an appropriate successor to ... Silent Spring, The Closing Circle, The Limits to Growth, and Small Is Beautiful" by the Minneapolis Tribune^[16]

In 1989, Rifkin brought together climate scientists and environmental activists from 35 nations in Washington, D.C. for the first meeting of the Global Greenhouse Network.^[17] In the same year, Rifkin did a series of Hollywood lectures on global warming and related environmental issues for a diverse assortment of film, television and music industry leaders, with the goal of organizing the Hollywood community for a campaign. Shortly thereafter, two Hollywood environmental organizations, Earth Communications Office (ECO) and Environmental Media Association, were formed.^[18]

1990s

In 1993, Rifkin launched the Beyond Beef Campaign, a coalition of six environmental groups including Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, and Public Citizen, with the goal of encouraging a 50% reduction in the consumption of beef, arguing that methane emissions from cattle has a warming effect 23 times greater than carbon dioxide.^[19][20][21]

His 1995 book, The End of Work, is credited by some with helping shape the current global debate on automation, technology displacement, corporate downsizing and the future of jobs. Reporting on the growing controversy over automation and technology displacement in 2011, The Economist pointed out that Rifkin drew attention to the trend back in 1996 with the publication of his book The End of Work. The Economist asked "what happens... when machines are smart enough to become workers? In other words, when capital becomes labor." The Economist noted that "this is what Jeremy Rifkin, a social critic, was driving at in his book, "The End of Work," published in 1996... Mr. Rifkin argued prophetically that society was entering a new phase, one in which fewer and fewer workers would be needed to produce all the goods and services consumed. 'In the years ahead,' he wrote, 'more sophisticated software technologies are going to bring civilisation ever closer to a near-workerless world. The process has already begun."^[22]

His 1998 book, The Biotech Century, addresses issues accompanying the new era of genetic commerce. In its review of the book, the journal Nature observed that "Rifkin does his best work in drawing attention to the growing inventory of real and potential dangers and the ethical conundrums raised by genetic technologies...At a time when scientific institutions are struggling with the public understanding of science, there is much they can learn from Rifkin's success as a public communicator of scientific and technological trends."^[23]

In The Biotech Century Rifkin argues that 'Genetic engineering represents the ultimate tool.' 'With genetic technology we assume control over the hereditary blueprints of life itself. Can any reasonable person believe for a moment that such unprecedented power is without substantial risk?'^[24] Some of the changes he highlights are: replication partially replacing reproduction; and 'Genetically customized and mass-produced animal clones could be used as chemical factories to secrete—in their blood and milk—large volumes of inexpensive chemicals and drugs for human use.'^[25]

2000s

Mr. Rifkin’s book, The Age of Access, published in the year 2000, was the first to introduce the idea that society is beginning to move from ownership of property in markets, to access to services in networks, giving rise to the Sharing Economy. According to the Journal of Consumer Research, “the phenomenon of access was first documented in the popular business press by Rifkin (2000), who primarily examines the business-to-business sector and argues that we are living in an age of access in which property regimes have changed to access regimes characterized by short-term limited use of assets controlled by networks of suppliers.”^[26][27]

After the publication of The Hydrogen Economy (2002), Rifkin worked both in the U.S. and Europe to advance the political cause of renewably generated hydrogen. In the U.S., Rifkin was instrumental in founding the Green Hydrogen Coalition, consisting of thirteen environmental and political organizations (including Greenpeace and MoveOn.org) that are committed to building a renewable hydrogen based economy.^[28] His 2004 book, The European Dream, was an international bestseller and winner of the 2005 Corine International Book Prize in Germany for the best economics book of the year.^[29][30]

2011 and 2012

In 2011, Rifkin published The Third Industrial Revolution; How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World. The book was a New York Times best-seller,^[31] and has been translated into 19 languages. By 2014, approximately 500,000 copies were in print in China alone.

Rifkin delivered a keynote address at the Global Green Summit 2012 on May 10, 2012. The conference was hosted by the Government of the Republic of Korea and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), in association with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea also gave a speech at the conference and embraced the Third Industrial Revolution to advance a green economy.^[32]

In December 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that the newly elected premier of China, Li Keqiang is a fan of Rifkin and had "told his state scholars to pay close attention" to Rifkin's book, The Third Industrial Revolution.^[33]

Rifkin received the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2012.^[34] He currently works out of an office in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

2014

In April 2014, Mr. Rifkin published The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism

2015

Mr. Rifkin was awarded an honorary doctorate from Hasselt University in Belgium in the spring of 2015.^[35] Mr. Rifkin also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Liege in Belgium in the Fall of 2015.^[36]

In November 2015, the Huffington Post reported from Beijing that "Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has not only read Jeremy Rifkin's book, The Third Industrial Revolution, and taken it to heart. He and his colleagues have also made it the core of the country's thirteenth Five-Year Plan announced in Beijing on October 29th."^[3] The Huffington Post went on to say that "this blueprint for China's future signals the most momentous shift in direction since the death of Mao and the advent of Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening up in 1978."^[3]

Reception

According to The "European Energy Review" "Perhaps no other author or thinker has had more influence on the EU's ambitious climate and energy policy than the famous American 'visionary' Jeremy Rifkin.^[37] In the United States, he has testified before numerous congressional committees and has had success in litigation to ensure responsible government policies on a variety of environmental, scientific and technology related issues.^[38] The Union of Concerned Scientists has cited some of Rifkin's publications as useful references for consumers^[39] and The New York Times once stated that "others in the scholarly, religious, and political fields praise Jeremy Rifkin for a willingness to think big, raise controversial questions, and serve as a social and ethical prophet"^[40]

Criticism

Rifkin's work has also been controversial. Opponents have attacked the lack of scientific rigor in his claims as well as some of the tactics he has used to promote his views. The Harvard scientist Stephen Jay Gould characterized Rifkin's 1983 book "Algeny" as "a cleverly constructed tract of anti-intellectual propaganda masquerading as scholarship".^[41]

A 1989 Time article about Rifkin's activist methods (entitled "The Most Hated Man in Science") details reactions by scientists, especially geneticists, of that decade.^[42]

Works

Books

• 1973, How to Commit Revolution American Style: Bicentennial Declaration, with John Rossen, Lyle Stuart Inc., ISBN 0-8184-0041-2
• 1975, Common Sense II: The Case Against Corporate Tyranny, Bantam Books, OCLC 123151709
• 1977, Own Your Own Job: Economic Democracy for Working Americans, ISBN 978-0-553-10487-5
• 1977, Who Should Play God? The Artificial Creation of Life and What it Means for the Future of the Human Race, with Ted Howard, Dell Publishing Co., ISBN 0-440-19504-7
• 1978, The North Will Rise Again: Pensions, Politics and Power in the 1980s, with Randy Barber, Beacon Press, ISBN 0-8070-4787-2
• 1979, The Emerging Order: God in the Age of Scarcity, with Ted Howard, Putnam, ISBN 978-0-399-12319-1
• 1980, Entropy: A New World View, with Ted Howard (afterword by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen), Viking Press, ISBN 0-670-29717-8
• 1983, Algeny: A New Word—A New World, in collaboration with Nicanor Perlas, Viking Press, ISBN 0-670-10885-5
• 1985, Declaration of a Heretic, Routledge and Kegan Paul, ISBN 978-0710207104
• 1987, Time Wars: The Primary Conflict In Human History, Henry Holt & Co, ISBN 0-8050-0377-0
• 1990, The Green Lifestyle Handbook: 1001 Ways to Heal the Earth (edited by Rifkin), Henry Holt & Co, ISBN 0-8050-1369-5
• 1991, Biosphere Politics: A New Consciousness for a New Century, Crown, ISBN 0-517-57746-1
• 1992, Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture, E. P. Dutton, ISBN 0-525-93420-0
• 1992, Voting Green: Your Complete Environmental Guide to Making Political Choices In The 90s, with Carol Grunewald Rifkin, Main Street Books, ISBN 0-385-41917-1
• 1995, The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era, Putnam Publishing Group, ISBN 0-87477-779-8
• 1998, The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World, J P Tarcher, ISBN 0-87477-909-X
• 2000, The Age Of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism, Where All of Life is a Paid-For Experience, Putnam Publishing Group, ISBN 1-58542-018-2
• 2002, The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the Worldwide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth, Jeremy P. Tarcher, ISBN 1-58542-193-6
• 2004, The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, Jeremy P. Tarcher, ISBN 1-58542-345-9
• 2010, The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness In a World In Crisis, Jeremy P. Tarcher, ISBN 1-58542-765-9
• 2011, The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-230-11521-7
• 2014, The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The internet of things, the collaborative commons, and the eclipse of capitalism, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-1-137-27846-3

See also

• Genetic pollution
• National Veterans Inquiry
• Winter Soldier Investigation
• The Empathic Civilization

References

1. Belin, Hughes (July–August 2008). "The Rifkin vision" (PDF). European Energy Review: 40–46. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
2. Gurmai, Zita; et al. (May 14, 2007). "Written declaration on establishing a green hydrogen economy and a third industrial revolution in Europe through a partnership with committed regions and cities, SMEs and civil society organisations". European Parliament. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-gardels/china-third-industrial-revolution_b_8478954.html
4. http://www.euractiv.com/sections/cities-and-regions-against-climate-change/jeremy-rifkin-whats-missing-un-climate-talks-new
5. http://www.thoughtleaders.world/en/2015-2/global/
6. "Highlights 2012". Foet.org. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
7. http://www.thethirdindustrialrevolution.com/masterPlan.cfm
8. http://rev3.fr/jeremy-rifkin/
9. http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1040/Den-Haag/article/detail/4155209/2015/10/03/Rotterdam-en-Den-Haag-huren-goeroe-in-voor-775-000-euro.dhtml
10. http://www.wort.lu/en/luxembourg/jeremy-rifkin-to-draw-up-strategy-luxembourg-becomes-living-lab-for-testing-sustainable-solutions-560548a30c88b46a8ce60f02
11. "Vivette R. Rifkin: 1911 – 2007". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. August 15, 2007.
12. "The University of Pennsylvania Student Award of Merit". Foet.org. Retrieved November 13, 2012.
13. Trillin, Calvin (January 21, 1974). "U.S. Journal: Boston Parallels". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
14. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1974/01/21/u-s-journal-boston-parallels
15. Rifkin, Jeremy (1977). Who Should Play God? The Artificial Creation of Life and What it Means for the Future of the Human Race (with Ted Howard). New York, NY: Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-440-19504-7.
16. "Jeremy Rifkin | The Foundation on Economic Trends | Books". Foet.org. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
17. "The Global Greenhouse Network – C-SPAN Video Library". C-spanvideo.org. October 10, 1988. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
18. Brownstein, Ronald (January–February 1991). "Hollywood Hardball". Mother Jones. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
19. Takahashi, Young, Takahashi, Bruce, A. (2002). Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 372. ISBN 0-444-51012-5.
20. Burros, Marian (August 12, 1993). "Agriculture Dept. Unveils Cooking Labels for Meat". New York Times. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
21. United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis: Summary for Policy Makers: Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. p. 3
22. V, N (November 4, 2011). "Difference Engine: Luddite legacy". The Economist. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
23. Krimsky, Sheldon (May 7, 1998). "All Aboard The Biotech Express". Nature. 393: 31–32. doi:10.1038/29911. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
24. Rifkin, Jeremy, The Biotech Century: the coming age of Genetic Commerce (London, 1998), p. 36.
25. Rifkin, Jeremy, The Biotech Century: the coming age of Genetic Commerce (London, 1998), p. 2
26. http://www.cass.city.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/203789/Access-Based-Consumption.pdf
27. http://www.uu.nl/en/file/21381/download?token=yV2nHJUn.
28. "Public Citizen Climate and Energy". Citizen.org. December 3, 2010. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
29. "Books: European Dream". Foet.org. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
30. "The Winners". Corine Internationaler Buchpreis. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
31. Schuessler, Jennifer. "Best Sellers – October 23, 2011". The New York Times. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
32. Hyun-kyung, Kang (May 10, 2012). "Lee Pledges Green Growth Cluster". The Korea Times. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
33. Bloomberg News (December 24, 2012). "China's New Leaders Burnish Image by Revealing Personal Details". Bloomberg News. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
34. "America Prize – 2012 Edition". Fondazione Italia USA. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
35. http://www.uhasselt.be/UH/general/About-UHasselt/About-UHasselt-University/Honorary-Doctorates.html
36. http://events.ulg.ac.be/ra2015/dhc/
37. http://foet.org/press/interviews/EuropeanEnergyReview06-08.pdf
38. Naik, Paul (Spring 2000). "Biotechnology Through the Eyes of an Opponent". Virginia Journal of Law and Technology Association. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
39. "The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices" (PDF). Union of Concerned Scientists. 1999. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
40. http://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/11/us/working-profile-jeremy-rifkin-an-activist-takes-on-genetic-engineering.html
41. S.J. Gould, "Integrity and Mr. Rifkin", Discover Magazine, January 1985; reprinted in Gould's essay collection An Urchin in the Storm, 1987, Penguin Books, p. 230
42. Thompson, Dick (December 4, 1989). "The Most Hated Man in Science: To some 'The Abominable No Man,' Gadfly Jeremy Rifkin Warns of the Dangers of Uncontrolled Experiments with New Technologies". Time.com. Archived from the original on December 20, 2007. Retrieved July 8, 2014.

External links

• Foet.org
• TheThirdIndustrialRevolution.com
• EmpathicCivilization.com
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Rossinstitute.org
• Euractiv.com
• Guardian.co.uk – 'Sorry, Mr President, homilies won't stop the hurricanes: We Americans need to get out of our SUVs and learn the harsh lesson of Katrina and Rita: we are all to blame', Jeremy Rifkin, The Guardian, (September 23, 2005)
• European Parliament Leaders announce Green Hydrogen initiative