摘要: It is a brave, but possibly foolish, person who thinks they can predict the future with any confidence. The American businessman and writer Peter F. Drucker once suggested that ‘trying to like trying drive down country road at night no lights while looking out back window’. Nevertheless, attempting foresee problems in order prepare for them deal better their consequences good discipline applied science, perhaps especially nature conservation given it so dependent upon extraneous influences. This borne by current emphasis on ‘horizon scanning’ environmental issues (Sutherland et al. 2009, 2010).