Thinking about the future is complicated at the best of times, but with more information and more awareness it becomes 'brain freeze'.

Here's a way to put your thinking into a reasonably clear framework. It is from David Holmgren, the Permaculter educator in Australia.

He has posted one of his talks with Powerpoint presentation, on the South Australian government's long range planning exercise. Same sort of thing that is going on here in Halton. Except our politicians and bureaucrats are not taking peak energy or climate chaos into account.

Holmgren's point of departure is to ask, what are the most basic drivers of social and economic activity. Arguably these are energy and climate. Do you think energy supply will decline fast (>10%/yr) or slow (<2%/yr)? Do you think climate change is most likely to occur fast or slow? He then gives a 2 x2 scenario space to support the strategic planning exercise.

Energy Descent Scenarios:

from Energy Descent Scenarios: Integrating Climate Change & Peak Oil http://www.energybulletin.net/22674.html

See the website or download the powerppoint.