The millennium project: Challenges we face at the millennium

This issue presents the accumulative research of the past 3 years of the Mi llennium Project and its approximately 550 participants from 50 countries t hat have contributed their judgments about the future of humanity, providin g an independent, interinstitutional, multinational, and interdisciplinary context for global thinking. Fifteen Global Challenges were identified that humanity faces at the millennium along with the actions to address each, a nd a range of views on each action. In addition, the Global Lookout Panel i dentified the means for reducing the time between early alerts and timely a ction, and explored related moral and ethical aspects of the decision proce ss. A normative scenario to the year 2050 encompasses three themes: technol ogical, human development, and political economic policy. A technique for u ser interactive exploratory scenarios is also included. The special study o n environmental security provides a better understanding of this emerging i ssue. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc.