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"Great expectations and a virtual world are among the megatrends changing the role of museums and arts organisations. The megatrends, identified by CSIRO trend analyst Stefan Hajkowicz, are a major shift in the cultural, economic, social, environmental and technological milieu that are expected to radically change the context of everything we do over the next 20 years. Some of the trends go to the very nature of why people come to museums, raising the possibility that museums, galleries and theatres could replace shops as the 'third place' where people congregate. Others will change the processes by which our organisations operate and the subjects on which we focus. Speaking at the Musuems Australia National Conference in Canberra on Shaping the Future of Museums, Dr Hajkowicz said while some changes were 'black swans' - phenomena never seen until a major change of environment - many were more like a 'kangaroo in the headlights', who sees the car coming but remains frozen. He gave the example of Eastman Kodak, which was involved in the development of the digital camera in 1975 but failed to change its business model from dependence on film and filed for bankruptcy in 2011."

"On June 2nd, I had the pleasure of speaking at the C40 Summit in São Paulo, Brazil. The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group consists of iconic cities from around the world committed to addressing climate change. Chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the group has recently joined forces with the Clinton Climate Initiative's Cities Program. Together, this partnership can have meaningful role in the fight against climate change."

This is a very cool trailer that depicts many of the challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. It is highly significant because the Communication of Foresight s one of the pre-eminent challenges we face today as societies. The dangers of climate change have been well developed by generations of climate scientists. But what about engaging various publics in the issue, garnering interest and energy for change through instigating new debates. How many other areas are like climate change - genetics, human consciousness, the list goes on. This trailer is a good example of aestheticizing the future in ways that CAN garner interest.

It's an idea that most of us would rather not face -- that within the next century, life as we know it could come to an end. Our civilization could crumble, leaving only traces of modern human existence behind. It seems outlandish, extreme -- even impossible. But according to cutting edge scientific research, it is a very real possibility. And unless we make drastic changes now, it could very well happen. Experts have a stark warning: that unless we change course, the "perfect storm" of population growth, dwindling resources and climate change has the potential to converge in the next century with catastrophic results.

In partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation and its Searchlight Partners around the world, people from all walks of life will play to catalyze change in the global landscape of poverty. From development professionals to local community leaders to citizens of change, we will gather the voices of people working on the ground to reimagine the future of development and economic well-being.

thanks Josh Floyd Great overview of personal energy calculus in context of climate change Saul Griffith has done a very detailed analysis of the energy portfolio required to address the problem of climate change inducing carbon emissions. He begins by examining what our maximum output of carbon emissions would be to limit carbon increases to 450 parts per million. He then calculates how much other types of energy (non carbon / fossil fuel based) will be needed. He then distributes this using a global equity system. The result is an overall reduction in energy consumption which is a quarter (25%) of current amounts. It is a useful application of backcasting and it has big applications for eco-innovation and entrepreneurship. For ICT, it implies a huge reduction in current energy consumption and a strong movement toward closed loop engineering.

Foresight is not about making predictions. Rather, it's a tool for identifying dynamics of change, in part by exploring the implications of those changes. This is a point I've made often enough that even I'm sick of it-but it remains an idea that not enough people understand. It's next to useless to say "X will happen;" it's much more valuable to say "here's why X could happen."

"A generation of far-reaching social change lies ahead for Australia. There will be a serious struggle to adapt to climate change as water security becomes a critical issue for many coastal cities and for agriculture. "

"On June 3, Brundtland held a keynote speech at Fudan University for the 15th anniversary of the joint BI-Fudan MBA program. Other speakers at the event included Dag Morten Dalen, Senior Vice President of BI, Lu Xiongwen, Dean of the Fudan School of Management, Professor Torger Reve, and Paul Utvik, an alumni of the BI-Fudan MBA Program. In her speech, Brundtland recognized China's importance as a collaborator in the global fight against climate change, and the challenges faced by the country in its efforts to balance economic growth with sustainable development. Citing former World Bank economist David Wheeler, she stated that China is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, like extreme weather. Brundtland said that the question is not if China should grow, but rather how it should grow, and that the advances made by China in green technology put it on the right track for making sustainable prosperity a reality. "

"To address this and similar challenges, we're developing Open Foresight - a social response to accelerating change. It's a new process that crowdsources the future of given topics, as demonstrated by the Future of Facebook pilot project. It's different because it structures data around established futures categories and methods, then synthesizes that information into easily digestible video format."

Developed with the IFF foresight engine "What is Breakthroughs to Cures?Breakthroughs to Cures is an online idea-generating game designed to garner new ideas for how we can change the medical research system to develop treatments and cures for patients faster. Imagine a future scenario (watch the video below) that takes place in 2020. A widespread contamination has triggered a neurological disease that is expected to infect as many as 100 million people in the U.S. Government leaders have convened a panel to investigate ways to accelerate the pace of research and find treatments or cures for this disease before it strikes. Over a 24-hour period, players will be sharing ideas and collaborating to build better ideas to help this panel uncover the best ways to change the current system of medical research and drug development."

"A NEW citizen science project will be launched next month to help researchers assess how our marine ecosystems are changing in response to ocean warming. Currently each year over three million Australian's go fishing, diving and boating and scientists want to enlist their help to collect valuable data for the RangeExtension Database and Mapping Project. Redmap invites recreational and commercial fishers, scuba divers, boaters and scientists in Western Australia to spot, log and map any uncommon marine species not usually seen in their particular coastal areas."

Provides insight + surprising solutions for the dramatic field of peri-urbanisation in Europe Introduces innovative tools for planners, scientists and lay-persons allowing to integratevily analyze the impact of peri-urbanisation onto sustainable development Has unique maps showing EU-periurbanisation effects on a pan-European level Has a conclusive didactic approach + text structure (e.g.  inserts, boxes ...) Presently, peri-urbanisation is one of the most pervasive processes of land use change in Europe with strong impacts on environment and quality of life. Urgently strategies and tools in support of sustainable development have to be developed. The book synthesizes results of PLUREL, a large European Commission funded research project (2007-2010). Tools and strategies of PLUREL address main challenges of managing land use in peri-urban areas. Results will be presented and illustrated through 6 case studies which are at the core of the book. A novel, futures oriented approach to the planning and management of peri-urban areas with a main focus on scenarios and sustainability impact analysis. The book is unique: - futures oriented (e.g. IPCC framework), - links quantitative modeling and sustainability impact analysis with qualitative & in-depth analysis of regional strategies - links study at European level (Nuts 2&3 regions) with case study work - involves a Chinese case study

Thought leaders in the field - including Bruce Sterling, Jamais Cascio, Bill McKibben, Witold Rybczynski and Jay Oglivy - will kick-start the launch by blogging about what "prevailing" means to them. Readers will be encouraged to become authors and help direct the discussion in groups devoted to everything from "Creating Stronger, Faster Communities" and "Human Enhancement" to "Revolutionizing Learning" and "Foresight - How Can We Think Critically About the Future?" "Prevailproject.org will be a place for everybody from my mother to technologists inventing the future to grapple with some of the most pressing questions of our time: How are the genetics, robotics, information and nano revolutions changing human nature, and how can we shape our own futures, toward our own ends, rather than being the pawns of these explosively powerful technologies?" said Joel Garreau, the Lincoln Professor of Law, Culture and Values at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, and director of The Prevail Project: Wise Governance for Challenging Futures.

" More than half the people on Earth now live in cities, so they'll be where we have to face our changing weather patterns. The most prepared cities are finding ways to keep citizens safe--and make them money. "

"...the message from Star Simpson, who stopped by the Institute yesterday to talk about TacoCopter, her in-joke turned viral juggernaut. The idea behind TacoCopter is relatively simple, but irresistibly futuristic: order tacos from your smartphone, and your friendly neighborhood unmanned drone will deliver them to your exact GPS coordinates within minutes. Star created tacocopter.com in 2011 as a joke to a friend, then promptly moved on to other projects. It wasn't until March of 2012 that the popular blog Hacker News discovered her site, at which point every 21st century media outlet jumped onto the story of the business that would change restaurants forever. It didn't seem to matter whether TacoCopter was real or not - it was an idea whose time had come."

"When asked by his interviewer about the "modest title" of his new book, The Future - Six Drivers of Global Change, former Vice President Al Gore replied, "Random House came up with that title." It's not an auspicious beginning to a talk about the perils of the Global Megacrisis, when you more or less say your title was chosen because the marketing team liked it best. Nevertheless, when Al Gore speaks, people listen. And hundreds of people lined up last week for his live South By Southwest (SXSW) interview with Wall Street Journal and All Things D tech reporter Walt Mossberg. It was to a sympathetic crowd that Gore laid out the tenets of his newest book, which was born in 2005 as an off-the-cuff but "adequate" answer during a post-appearance Q&A session. "

Over the next few decades, the global food system will come under renewed pressure from the combined effects of seven fundamental factors: population growth, the nutrition transition, energy, land, water, labour and climate change. The combined effects will create constraints on food supply and if action is not taken, there is a real potential for demand growth to outstrip increases in global food production. Effects on developing countries would be devastating. Developed countries will be affected too. Expectations of abundant and ever cheaper food could come under strain. The UK can no longer afford to take its food supply for granted.

'Futures' (images of the future) are often devised at the level of a single university or at a national level for the overall higher education system. However, the bulk of trends and driving forces shaping universities' future are international in their nature and universities operate in broader socio-economic and S&T systems. Hence, futures devised in a multi-level structure would better assist decision-makers and stakeholders. This approach is a demanding one in several respects, but offers significant advantages: (i) the potential changes in the social, economic and S&T systems, in which universities are embedded, as well as their impacts on higher education can be considered systematically; (ii) the substantial diversity of higher education systems and individual universities can be taken into account; and (iii) the likely impacts of various policy options can also be analysed.

An industry that once told hard truths to corporate and government clients now mostly just tells them what they want to hear, making it harder for us all to adapt to a changing world -- and that's why I'm leaving it.