Humanity is facing multiple possible apocalypses, with narratives that often miss an important point: The apocalypse probably won’t be quick or final. It will be an environment, not an event or an end point for humanity. The apocalypse is more likely to bring misery than catharsis or salvation. Although worst-case scenarios theoretically make it easier to prevent dire outcomes, in the case of slow-moving apocalypses such as climate change, it’s difficult for humans to envision the scale of the problem and to imagine how we will actually experience it.
It’s not fun to be a futurist these days. The role of a foresight specialist is to keep tabs on global trends in fields such as technology, politics, and environmental science – and to imagine how they might interact to bring about future changes. It’s not about making predictions; it’s about illuminating the various possible consequences of the choices humans make today. Sadly, a growing number of those possible consequences are awful. One could even call them apocalyptic.