History, Past And Future -28 November 2008 15:00

History, it is often said, never repeats. Yet, a little confusingly, we are also told that we need to learn lessons from history to prevent the same things happening over and over. And then there's the notion that there are no gaps between time or matter, so we in the present are intricately connected to things past and future on some great cosmic continuum, rendering the whole notion of history irrelevant.

ABC Fora has spent a bit of time pondering these issues recently, thereby consigning to history many hours that could probably have been more constructively spent. And so this week, you can hear talks about both the past and the future, and how one might affect the other.

Consider the subject of Geoffrey Blainey's recent talk: Captain Cook. He left England determined to find the next America: a lost southern continent where the soil would be fertile and riches would abound. Instead, he knocked into the side of a big, dry hunk of land, with a climate completely unsuited to European agriculture, architecture and fashion, and a population who, it might be argued, would've been better off left alone.

So history reveals that the future for modern Australia was set in train by a bloke who was looking for something in the vicinity, but not looking for exactly what he found.

Meanwhile, scientists around the world are looking for ways to combat one of the biggest problems of our future: climate change. The problem can be traced back through generations of human history to the Industrial Revolution but IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri has a whole bunch of ideas for how "generation green" can look for solutions.

Governments are increasingly investing in major research projects, with scientists and engineers exploring a range of ideas, from wind farms to wind-up cars.

What will work well? What will not work at all? No-one can predict the future, but the international community is coming around to the view that climate change is something that needs to be addressed.

Like Cook's great trip south, we might not find what exactly what we're looking for. But who knows, maybe we'll find ways to better manage the future, and in doing so, change the course of history.

--Edwina Throsby