The Australian Academy of Science will today launch the final publication from its Australia 2050 project that aims to get Australians talking about our long-term economic, social and environmental future.
Today’s launch of Australia 2050: Structuring Conversations About our Future at the Science Pathways conference in Adelaide is the culmination of an ambitious five-year project to find ways to foster national discussion about future scenarios for Australia with experts from science, industry, commerce, government, community, sports, arts and social welfare.
The Australia 2050 publications offer a roadmap for groups of any kind, anywhere to have constructive conversations about the future they want for themselves, their children and their grandchildren, based on comparing four starkly different scenarios.
In her foreword to the new volume, former Governor-General Dame Quentin Bryce said the Australia 2050 project has been an important step towards catalysing a national conversation about the kind of future Australians want.
“Predicting the future is impossible, yet we need to plan for it if we can. We know that the choices we make today will, to a greater or lesser extent, shape the future we will have,” she writes.
Chair of the Australia 2050 steering committee, CSIRO and Academy Fellow Dr John Finnigan said: “This project provides insights to governments and community groups about how to better plan for the future. It also tries to get Australians to confront the fact that different groups want different futures for our country and that not all of them are compatible or even possible.”
“What we can be sure of is that whatever future we will have, we will all share it and choices we make now will help shape it. Sleepwalking into the future is not an option,” Dr Finnigan said.
The public launch will be held at 11:00 a.m. at the Braggs’ Lecture Theatre, University of Adelaide. Media welcome, Dr John Finnigan is available for interview.
© 2024 Australian Academy of Science
