Future Headline: City of Phoenix Enforces Daytime Curfew
Dateline: June 15, 2030, 2030 Pacific Time
(HF) The Greater Metro Council of Phoenix has declared a daytime curfew for 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM, effective immediately. The curfew restricts outside activity within the metro area to only those activities deemed necessary by local emergency authorities. The Council enacted the curfew after temperatures reached 125 degrees today, with the 7-day forecast calling for temps as high as 130 degrees. All businesses, government offices, and other non-essential organizations will close by 9:00 AM to allow employees to transit to their homes or emergency cooling shelter. Those who have received an exception will be allowed to operate. Those exceptions are limited to government, healthcare, and businesses deemed necessary during the curfew. Anyone caught violating the curfew without this emergency exception is subject to fines and possible imprisonment.
Is this a prediction? No. But, it is a possible future, given climate change projections.
The purpose of creating possible headlines is to conceptualize what our mutual future may hold, which allows us to understand how our current actions and inactions can create that future. We can also imagine a preferable future and determine the steps to build it.
As humans, we do this every day. When we think about the career we want, we practice foresight. We imagine how a new job will provide more money, picture what we may do with it; then we use those images and motivation to take the necessary steps to ensure our vision comes true. The same is true for businesses and organizations. The headline above can provoke community discussion on preventing it or examining mitigations. Still, it begins the examination of what we will confront and start us down a path of understanding the future.
Future headlines are a start but envisioning the future for a business or community is much more complex, with many factors, forces, and trends outside your immediate control. However, strategic foresight professionals are trained to help organizations navigate these complexities, make sense of the possible futures, and help to determine your preferable future.
