We've touched on both green futurism and scenario planning before, but here's a little follow-up: Forum for the Future's Ben Tuxworth on using scenarios to build "toolkits for the future." It's basic stuff, but worth a look:

"Can scenario planning help more sustainable approaches take root? ... On one level, anything that helps people think long term adds value. The worst effects of global warming, for example, don’t even begin for another 25 years, which is well beyond the horizons of most planning processes. [S]cenario planning is another useful addition to the toolkit for long-term thinking. And in the scenario work for the south-east, sustainability has found some new bedfellows in ‘resilience planning’ for business in a global economy, and contingency planning for acts of terrorism. Both of which suggest more dispersed models of economic development, energy generation and the provision of infrastructure – a form of localisation, in fact, that is close to the heart of advocates of sustainability."