Trends and megatrends

Introduction

CSIRO released its latest update today - 5 Sep 2012 - in a series entitled Our Future World. The 2012 revision is cited as follows:

Hajkowicz SA, Cook H, Littleboy A. 2012. Our Future World: Global megatrends that will change the way we live. The 2012 Revision. CSIRO, Australia.

The French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr is attributed with the maxim excerpted from Les Guêpes, (January 1849) that is usually translated into English as:

The more things change the more they remain the same.

If an important human purpose is to maintain a meaningful existence for a lifetime and leave the world in a state that does not prejudice the chances that future generations can also survive meaningfully, then our production systems need to reflect stability rather than the the crisis-filled management of boom and bust  Some smoothing and stabilisation becomes important to maintain employment, housing, and food production as well as  continuity in income for an ageing population less reliant on savings or social welfare.

Megatrends

Many of the things that CSIRO has identified as megatrends relate to systems for producing goods and services that contain elements of continuity that have not changed for millennia. These elements may be likened to a fundamental metabolism - the ability to ingest food, water and air of adequate quality as part of maintaining physiological and psychological health in human beings. This requirement for producing and consuming metabolites extends to a community problem that extends to supporting people who are too young, too old or incapacitated in some way to contribute fully towards their own upkeep.

The ability to do more with less will depend on human ingenuity in using the resources at hand more effectively. The pathway needs to be seen in terms of changing circumstances that influence what will be produced and how it can be done.

The surveying and mapping industry in Queensland has undergone considerable progress since the 1960s in becoming more responsive to 

John S Cook, An interpretation of current progress towards an industry model for Queensland's surveying and mapping industry. In 39th Australian Surveyors Congress, 8-13 November 1998, Launceston, TAS., reissued as a digital version on 8 August 2012 with revised references to online digital content.

Further comment will be made on many of these issues at QSSC2012 - the conference to be held on 13-14 September 2012 at the Brisbane Convention Centre.

Recent representations to Parliamentary Committees

CSIRO's 2012 Update is already common knowledge to competent socioeconomic analysts. It is important nonetheless in providing a readable, credible and authoritative expression of opinion that is likely to filter into news stories about current affairs and become more widely appreciated within a broader community.

Moreover, the key messages serve to reinforce the advice from the Queensland Division of the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (QSSSI) through its Land Resources Commission (LRC) to two current parliamentary Committee Inquiries.