scenarios

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    3Q25 GDP: Half Full, Half Empty — and Still Missing the Point

    If you listened only to the loudest voices after the US 3Q25 GDP release, you’d think two completely different economies were being described. On one side, there was genuine enthusiasm—bordering on celebration—over “nearly 5% GDP growth,” cited confidently and repeatedly, with little attention paid to qualifiers like nominal, inflation, or composition. On the other side,…

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    COP30 in the Amazon: A Pivotal Moment to Close the Climate Ambition Gap Amidst Global Uncertainty

    — Article 1 of 2: The COP30 Essentials & The Ambition Gap — The 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30), currently underway in the Brazilian Amazon, represents a critical juncture in the global climate fight. Hosted by a nation intrinsically linked to the planet’s most vital carbon sink, the summit has been framed as the…

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    Elias’s Future Farm: Building a Sustainable Legacy for 100 Years and Beyond

    From Choices to Legacy: the Future Sustainable Farm Elias, the Ohio farmer we met in recent scenario planning case studies, faces choices that mirror the world’s energy dilemmas: drilling for oil and gas, planting corn for ethanol, building solar and wind farms, or adopting regenerative agriculture. Each path offers rewards and risks, but as Elias…

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    The Farmer’s Choice: Shell-Inspired Scenarios for a Carbon-Negative Future (1/2)

    The Farmer’s Dilemma Elias, a farmer in eastern Ohio, stands at the edge of his fields with competing futures before him. Is there a carbon-negative future ahead? His corn stretches toward the horizon, but beneath the soil lie the Utica and Marcellus Shale formations, some of the richest fossil reserves in North America. He could…

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    From Farm to Future: Four Scenarios for a Carbon-Negative World (2/2)

    Revisiting the Farmer’s Choice In Part 1 of this series, we introduced Elias, a farmer in eastern Ohio whose land sits at the crossroads of energy and agriculture. Beneath his soil lie the Utica and Marcellus Shale formations, tempting him with oil and gas leases. Above his fields stretch skies fit for solar panels and…

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    Unsustainability as the Engine of Sustainability and Scenario Planning

    Sustainability and scenario planning Synergy. Sustainability and scenario planning may seem like two separate domains—one focused on resource stewardship and long-term resilience, the other on mapping uncertainties and preparing for multiple futures. Yet they are deeply intertwined. Anything that is not sustainable will eventually fail, and in that failure lies the seed of future scenarios….