With my Transition hat on, a couple of things of interest were -
- Why are so few stories about the future a positive vision? Anna's answer: because apocalyptic scenarios are the easiest to imagine. Its a failure of the imagination, a cop out. It makes me think a story telling competition might be in order...
- Why isn't peak oil a topic in the media? IMHO it will be the greatest influence over the next 5 years. Their answer: peak oil is a background condition, not an event. More importantly, it's not visual. Humans are very visual and visual events make great TV coverage. That's why car races are news. So how to create visual events out of peak oil or relating to oil dependency?
- “Astro-turfing”, a new term to me, meaning industry fronts who masquerade as grassroots community groups or 'independent' research bodies who then support business as usual industry practices. Individuals in these community groups are being duped, don't know about the researchers.
Written by Kate Leslie