Forecasts for 2008 and Beyond: Exploring personal and global futures....

The World Future Society (WFS) has been around since 1966. As a nonprofit educational and scientific organization based in Washington DC, WFS is "interested in how social and technological developments are shaping the future."

As a new year roles in...everyone always rattles off their new years resolutions....usually most of them don't last longer than the end of the first month....how many of us joined the gym in a new year?

WFS discusses the "Top 10 Forecasts for 2008 and Beyond", here is an overview of the WFS editors forecasts:

1. The world will have a billion millionaires by 2025.
2. Fashion will go wired as technologies and tastes converge to revolutionize the textile industry.
3. The threat of another cold war with China, Russia, or both could replace terrorism as the chief foreign-policy concern of the United States.
4. Counterfeiting of currency will proliferate, driving the move toward a cashless society.
5. The earth is on the verge of a significant extinction event.
6. Water will be in the twenty-first century what oil was in the twentieth century.
7. World population by 2050 may grow larger than previously expected, due in part to healthier, longer-living people.
8. The number of Africans imperiled by floods will grow 70-fold by 2080.
9. Rising prices for natural resources could lead to a full-scale rush to develop the Arctic.
10. More decisions will be made by nonhuman entities.
    (further reading on each of the 10 forecasts....)
    

Classroom Chat....
Why study, discuss or look at the future?

A great quote from the WFS website explains why.....

"The world changes so quickly it's hard to keep up. New inventions and innovations alter the way we live. People's values, attitudes, and beliefs are changing. And the pace of change keeps accelerating, making it difficult to prepare for tomorrow. By studying the future, people can better anticipate what lies ahead. More importantly, they can actively decide how they will live in the future, by making choices today and realizing the consequences of their decisions.

The future doesn't just happen: People create it through their action -- or inaction -- today."