The simultaneous onset of climate change and the peaking of global oil supply represent unprecedented challenges for human civilisation. Global oil peak has the potential to shake, if not destroy, the foundations of the global industrial economy and culture. Climate change has the potential to rearrange the biosphere more radically than the last ice age. Each limits the effective options for responses to the other.

Future Scenarios presents an integrated approach to understanding the potential interaction between climate change and peak oil using a scenario planning model. It also introduces permaculture as a design system evolved over the last 30 years to creatively respond to futures that involve progressively less available energy.