The document discusses several perspectives on predicting the future including that the future is uncertain, predictions are often wrong, and it's difficult to foresee changes. It also explores trends related to population growth, economic development, environmental challenges, and reducing poverty that will impact the future global landscape. Futures thinking is presented as a way to stimulate imagination, encourage creativity, and help identify opportunities to shape the future in a wiser way.

1. “If you don’t like the world the way it is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.” --Marian Wright Edelman

2. Materialism & Idealism Jeffrey D. Sachs “Common Wealth” Lecture #1

3. “ The Future’s Uncertain and the End Is Always Near.” “ Roadhouse Blues” Jim Morrison, The Doors

8. In thinking about the future, it’s common to project too little change. Clement Bezold; Quality Progress 7/1996

10. “ Are our current predictions about the future any smarter?” Maybe those concerns about the health implications of nano-materials or genetically-engineered food aren’t quite as unwarranted as the manufacturers would have us think. And perhaps the grand expectations of how genetic technology will improve humankind and extend our lives by decades aren’t nearly as imminent — or likely — as popular books and articles predict. Michael Rogers, The Practical Futurist, MSNBC, 10/11/2006

11. “ In other words, each generation seems to inherit not only new knowledge but also new ignorance. Thus far, our generation has been supremely confident about our new knowledge. The really interesting question that remains is the exact nature of our ignorance.”

15. Lack of money is no longer the major hindrance to solving many of the world's most intractable social problems. Philanthropists such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson, and Joan Kroc now make gifts in the billions. Charitable giving overall has jumped 23% in the past four years. And there's growing interest among investors eager to fund for-profit businesses that have both social and economic impact. Rather, there's a paucity of creative ideas. "It's all about innovation," says CEO Tim Brown of Ideo, who advises Acumen. "The money is there, but the solutions aren't. Designers can contribute. We're pretty good at taking a bunch of disparate components and figuring out the solution." Beyond the success of Acumen companies, Novogratz is creating a laboratory to design new business models…drawn from University of Michigan economics professor C.K. Prahalad, whose bottom-of-the-pyramid theory holds that there's great untapped market potential among the 4 billion people, more than half the world's population, who make less than $2 a day. Business Week 11/10/2006

19. Nic Marks: “The Happy Planet Index.”

22. “ It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future.” --Yogi Berra

23. Things are different today, (Sachs) writes, because of four trends: human pressure on the earth, a dangerous rise in population, extreme poverty and a political climate characterized by c y nicism, defeatism and outdated institutions. These pressures will increase as the developing world inexorably catches up to the developed world. (NY Times Review of “Common Wealth)

26. Individual actions have collective impact.