Posted on 19 April 2011 by Stephan Lewandowsky

From climate change to peak oil and food security, our societies are confronted with many serious challenges that, if left unresolved, will threaten the well-being of present and future generations, and the natural world. This new website www.shapingtomorrowsworld.org is dedicated to discussion of those challenges and potential solutions based on scientific evidence and scholarly analysis.

The site was conceived by a team of academics at the University of Western Australia, and it was designed and implemented by Wendy and John Cook of www.skepticalscience.com. Seed funding for the platform was provided by the University of Western Australia, although it is now maintained entirely on a volunteer basis.

Our goal is to provide a platform for re-examining some of the assumptions we make about our technological, social and economic systems. The posts on this site are generally written by domain experts, specialists, and scholars with an interest in these problems and we hope they will generate informed and constructive debate. We welcome contributions from experts and scholars around the world; please contact us on editors@shapingtomorrowsworld.org with proposals for posts or any other off-line comment.

Our long-term goal is to provide an archival resource for debates and pointers to solutions to the many problems we are facing. Our rigorous comments policy will ensure that discussions remain civil and on track—please come and join the conversation at www.shapingtomorrowsworld.org. There is much to do, let’s move forward together.