Walter Greiling (5 September 1900 – 1986,

Neu-Isenburg Neu-Isenburg is a town in Germany, located in the Offenbach district of Hesse. It is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area and has a population of 38,204 (2020). The town is known nowadays mainly for its regionally used shopping centre, th ...

) was a German chemist and

futurologist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...

. He sometimes used the pseudonym ''Walt Grey''.

Life

Greiling studied social and natural sciences in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

(Dr. phil. 1921). He partially earned his living as a worker in

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

and

sulfide mining Acid mine drainage, acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD), or acid rock drainage (ARD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weathering ...

. Greiling did research in the field of

agricultural microbiology Agricultural microbiology is a branch of microbiology dealing with plant-associated microbes and plant and animal diseases. It also deals with the microbiology of soil fertility, such as microbial degradation of organic matter and soil nutrient tr ...

. He worked at the Technische Hochschule in

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...

, as an assistant, as well as for the Hamburgisches Welt-Wirtschafts-Archiv (''Hamburg archive of world economy''). He participated in designing the

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Atomium The Atomium ( , , ) is a landmark building in Brussels, Belgium, originally constructed for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo '58). It is located on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau in Laeken (northern part of the City of Brussels), where the exh ...

for Expo 58, was an editor of the social and economic magazine ''

Wirtschaftsdienst ''Wirtschaftsdienst – Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik'' ( en, Economics Review – Journal of Economic Policy) is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering economic and social policy issues in Germany or affecting Germany. It also publishes ...

'',

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of ''Chemische Industrie'' (''chemical industry''), and a collaborator of the London and Cambridge Economic Service. He led the information service of the main association of the chemical industry of Germany and wrote several books on developments in sciences and technique.

Greiling's predictions till 2100

Greiling, in his work ''Wie werden wir leben? Ein Buch von den Aufgaben unserer Zeit'' (''How are we going to live? A book of the tasks of our time''; 1954), foresaw the rest of the 20th century as a time in which there would, for the present, further be

overexploited Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term ap ...

natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...

s. He predicted that from 1990 to 1995, there would begin systematic international efforts to mitigate climate change and that, shortly after the turn of the millennium, there would for the first time come about a sudden and crisis-laden shortage of the international supply of

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

. World population would balance out at about nine billion, rather earlier than later in the 21st century. During the 21st century, mankind would succeed to cooperate internationally in shifting to biological

raw material A raw material, also known as a feedstock, unprocessed material, or primary commodity, is a basic material that is used to produce goods, finished goods, energy, or intermediate materials that are feedstock for future finished products. As feedst ...

s. This and big undertakings to humidify the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

Turkestan Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan ( fa, ترکستان, Torkestân, lit=Land of the Turks), is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang. Overview Known as Turan to the Persians, western Turke ...

and further regions of the Earth would make it possible to feed ten billion people with comparative ease. Greiling warns of attempts to use

nuclear energy Nuclear energy may refer to: *Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity * Nuclear binding energy, the energy needed to fuse or split a nucleus of an atom *Nuclear potential energy ...

Works

* Chemie erobert die Welt (''Chemistry conquers the world''). Econ-Verlag, Munich 1951 * Vernichtungs-Strahlen (''Rays of destruction''). Hoch-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1952 * Paul Ehrlich. Econ-Verlag, Munich 1954 * Wie werden wir leben? Ein Buch von den Aufgaben unserer Zeit (''How are we going to live? A book of the tasks of our time''). Econ-Verlag, Munich 1954 * Chemie, Motor der Zukunft (''Chemistry — engine of future'').

Bertelsmann Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and ...

Lesering, Gütersloh 1961 * Mehr Brot für mehr Menschen (''More bread for people''). Franckh-Verlag, Stuttgart 1963 * Chemie und Elektronik verändern die Welt. Leben mit dem Fortschritt (''Chemistry and electronics change the world. Living with progress''). Econ-Verlag, Munich 1971

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greiling, Walter German biochemists Futurologists People from Neu-Isenburg 1900 births 1986 deaths