You can ride the waves of change instead of being engulfed by them by exploring:
• How larger forces may make “business as usual” difficult or impossible;
• How you can take action to minimize these negative impacts; and
• How larger forces may create opportunities that can enhance the success of your
programs.
The list of trends that follows is far from a comprehensive accounting of the challenges
facing us, but it covers the primary drivers that will shape the future.
Today’s major drivers include:
1. Global Warming: Undeniable Science
2. Loss of Natural Capital
3. Strategic Resource Trends: Peak oil, water scarcities and other constraints
4. LOHAS: The Sustainability Imperative
1. Global Warming: Undeniable Science
When asked to name a global trend many people reply, “terrorism.” That is indeed a
phenomenon of modern life. But terrorism is far less likely to impact you personally
than an array of other changes sweeping the planet.
Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance company after assessing the total insurance
losses due to the September 11 events, stated that it is more concerned about climate
change than future terrorist risks.
As the climate changes, what had been considered “natural” disasters like flooding and
hurricanes are increasing. The changing climate is forcing cities to deal with such acute
challenges as storms, heatwaves and water shortages. It also imposes a wide array of
long-term impacts such as droughts, the spread of diseases and the demise of
historically important industries.
In December 2005, at the International Climate Conference in Montreal, Munich Re
Foundation released figures showing $200 billion in weather related losses that year,
breaking the previous record from 2004 of $145 billion.
1
In
contrast, the World Trade Center losses were less than $40
billion.2
The frequency of major natural disasters is now three times what
it was in the 1960s. CGNU, the largest insurance company in
the UK, forecasts that at the current rate of increase of the
property damages, by the year 2065, the cost of these disasters
will be higher than the entire world economic production.3
The following figure shows the evolution of the economic costs,
and insured costs of natural disasters worldwide over the past
decades.