In my last post I listed four General Trends and Dynamics that would gain power in this New Year.  The third one listed was the about alternative energy and Global Warming.  The fact that we reached a tipping point on this in 2006 will become much clearer this year.  It will be a dominant story, a forceful change in consciousness, a political/security issue, and both an economic issue and an incredible economic opportunity. 

In the first week of the year, while poor Denver continues to get blasted with snow, most of the rest of the country experienced spring weather.  Cherry blossoms in Washington D.C., people running in shorts in New York, and golf courses open for the first time in January.  Twenty years ago, Global Warming was an arcane concept understood only by ardent environmentalists, today it is a personal experience for all of us.  That was the first week of January. 

The second week of January brings us the Detroit Auto Show, the most important auto show in the US.  GM announced that it would launch a unique hybrid car.  Yes, the company accused of ‘killing the electric car’ announced that they would produce the Chevrolet Volt.  In addition they announced they were developing a hybrid plug-in version of the Saturn Vue Green Line. The obvious questions are how fast the automotive behemoth can bring these models to market, in what volume and at what price.  I submit that the survival of GM is in great part dependent on how …

As a futurist I am always asked to make predictions. Often somewhat in jest, people ask me who is going to win the election, how much will the stock market go up in the next three months, who will win the Super Bowl, things like that. While I have been accurate in such predictions, it is not what I do. My job is to analyze trends and the underlying dynamics that create them. Having developed a level of pattern recognition allows me to connect a seeming disparate collection of events and occurrences to discern the early development of a new trend or direction that will, in the months and years ahead prove to be true and be recognized by the wider public. I look at history, recent history, things going on today, around the world, and try to see the broad flows and dynamics from which new trends will emerge.

In this, the first post of 2007, I will list the large, general dynamics that will affect us in 2007 and beyond and then give a list of more specific trends that we will experience during the coming year. In subsequent posts, I will delve a bit more deeply into some of these predictions.

Disclaimer

I am a futurist, not a seer or psychic. I do not suggest that specific events will occur or on what date they will occur. If you want the winner of the Super Bowl and the level of the Dow Jones on 12/31/07, please look elsewhere. Futurists openly …