Messages from the future

What do new types of plastic, a recession-proof solar boom in California and resurgent UK regional accents have in common? Or high-street butchers, energy rationing and the emergence of a ‘recession generation’?

They could all be ‘weak signals’ from the future – signs of what may be to come. If you’re into sustainable development and planning for the future, then weak signals are important.

For example, a couple of years ago we noticed that the Australian Outback had been closed to protect tourists from the extreme heat. This struck us as something that could become more common in the future as the climate changes, and that could have a big impact on the tourism industry. So we built the idea into one of our Tourism 2023 scenarios which are helping the tourism industry plan for its future.

Some weak signals may be a harbinger of precisely nothing. Some may reappear years or even decades later. But others may grow progressively stronger, and even become part of a mainstream trend that plays a significant role in defining the future. They may hold implications for your organisation, your community – or even you personally.

We’ve been tracking weak signals for a couple of years, and now we’re making them public. Click here to have a look, or follow the beautifully designed ‘weak signals’ link on the right hand side of our home page.

You can learn about the obesity plateau in the USA, a 100% solar town in Uruguay, the phenomenon of bee-rustling, remote-control gardens and much more. Reading about these weak signals might just challenge some of your assumptions about what the future holds.

The blog is updated regularly so we hope you’ll find something new each time you check in. Please tell us what you think. Are we uncovering new trends? What could they mean for the prospects of a sustainable future?

By the way, you can read more about what weak signals are and how we use them, along with plenty of examples, in Hugh Knowles’s articlefor Green Futures.