The 2012 State of the Future CD contains about 10,000 pages of The Millennium Project's 16 years of cumulative research and methods. It is a concise, readable overview of the global situation, problems, solutions, and prospects for the future. It covers the global landscape with two-page overviews with regional considerations of 15 global challenges such as energy, food, science & technology, ethics, development, water, organized crime, health, decisionmaking, gender relations, demographics, war & peace, and others. These together with the executive summary are ideal for busy executives, thought leaders, corporate strategic planners, public policy experts, policy advisers, non-profit issues organizations, teachers and professors of world issues, and anyone interested in a global overview of our prospects for the future with discussions of problems and potential solutions.
Readers will learn how their interests fit into the global situation and how the global situation may affect them and their interests.
This is the 16th report in an annual series intended to provide a context for global thinking and improved understanding of global issues, opportunities, challenges, and strategies.
The 2012 State of the Future finds the world is getting richer, healthier, better educated, living longer, and is more peaceful and better connected; yet half the world is potentially unstable. Food prices are rising, water tables are falling, corruption and organized crime are increasing, environmental viability for our life support is diminishing, debt and economic insecurity are increasing, climate change continues, and the gap between the rich and poor is widening dangerously.'' says co-author and The Millennium Project Director, Jerome C. Glenn.

The State of the Future reports are produced by the Millennium Project with its 46 Nodes (groups of futurists and organizations) around the world, which collects, feeds back, and assesses insights from creative and knowledgeable people on emerging crises, opportunities, strategic priorities, and the feasibility of actions.

Because the issues and solutions of our time are increasingly transnational, transinstitutional, and transdisciplinary, The Millennium Project was created as a global participatory think tank of futurists, scholars, scientists, business planners, and policymakers who work for international organizations, governments, corporations, NGOs, and universities.
The purposes of The Millennium Project are to assist in organizing futures research, improve thinking about the future, and make that thinking available through a variety of media for consideration in policymaking, advanced training, public education, and feedback, ideally in order to accumulate wisdom about potential futures.

The Millennium Project s diversity of opinions and global view is ensured by the Nodes groups of individuals and organizations that interconnect global and local perspectives. They identify participants, conduct interviews, translate and distribute questionnaires, and conduct research and conferences. It is through their contributions that the world picture of this report and indeed all of The Millennium Project s work emerges.
Through its research, publications, conferences, and Nodes, The Millennium Project helps to nurture an international collaborative spirit of free inquiry and feedback for increasing collective intelligence to improve social, technical, and environmental viability for human development.