Every 4 years, the U.S. National Intelligence Council publishes its Global Trends report. The purpose of the report is to advise policy makers (particularly the president—hence the once-every-four-years timeframe) on the intelligence community’s predictions for the next twenty years. This year’s report, Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds, covers a variety of global social, environmental, political, economic and technological trends and draws on experts from equally diverse backgrounds. This report is a gold mine for innovators, educators, policy makers, students and information professionals. The 2012 global trends report is particularly interesting to folks working in my current field: technology commercialization. The new edition contains expanded emerging technology coverage and addresses the question: “will technological breakthroughs be developed in time to boost economic productivity and solve problems caused by growing world population, rapid urbanization, and climate change?” (ii) To answer this critical question, the NIC looked outside of the intelligence community and surveyed scientists and consultants from NASA to Silicon Valley.

Here is just a quick sampling of some of the mega trends forecast by the report:

Global population will rise to approximately 8.3 billion
Climate change will lead to a higher frequency of extreme weather events
Decline in Western share of global wealth
Growth in the global middle class

In all, this is a fascinating report and a trusted source for information on global trends. At 150+ pages, the report is not exactly light reading, but should be in every information professional’s tool chest nevertheless.

You can obtain a copy of the report (FREE) and the three reports that preceded it here.