I have heard about the lakes. I didn't know about the coastlines, but it makes sense along with being the second largest country with the most lakes in the world. I think I have read we have the most fresh water too, or fresh water lakes. As water becomes more important as a natural resource, Canada has a lot going for it. I hope we keep our water clean, unpolluted.

In movies about dire futures I never see Canada as a destination for people to escape/ run to. Of course, most of the apocalypse/ dire future movies and TV shows are based in the US and working with the theory that the US saves the world. The reality is likely to be very different.

Canada’s Endless Coasts

Canada has—by far—the longest coastline of any country in the world. Canada is a massive country by overall area in general, coming in second only to Russia in terms of square mileage (or square kilometers, as it were, in the Canadian measurement system). So it makes sense that Canada has a ton of coastline. And because Canada is made up of so many islands, both large and small, in its far northern territories, that amount of coastline rises nearly exponentially while counting all those shores.

The actual numbers are staggering. Canada has 151,000 miles (243,042 kilometers) of coastline. And the next closest countries on the list aren’t even in Canada’s league! That’d be Indonesia (33,554 miles or 54,000 kilometers of coastline), Russia (nearly 23,612 miles or 38,000 kilometers), the United States (just under 12,430 miles or 20,000 kilometers), and China (almost 9,325 miles or 15,000 kilometers). Canada wins!

Canada wins in another way, too: the most lakes in the world. As if saltwater and access to oceans and seas weren’t enough for the Canadians, they also have more freshwater within their nation’s boundaries than any other country on Earth.

In total, Canada has 879,800 lakes all throughout its land. Not only is that the most lakes on earth, it’s actually more lakes than all other countries in the world COMBINED! When you account for the entire globe, Canada holds more than 60% of the world’s 1.4 million lakes. Russia is second on the lake list—if you’re curious—but they are nowhere close to Canada.

ListVerse - Ten Strange but True Geography Facts

We are creating intelligent technology while having people become very reliant on it. Sounds like a robot army to me.

"There are no future facts." - Fred Polak

From the Association of Professional Futurists:

What is a Futurist?

A professional futurist is a person who studies the future in order to help people understand, anticipate, prepare for and gain advantage from coming changes. It is not the goal of a futurist to predict what will happen in the future. The futurist uses foresight to describe what could happen in the future and, in some cases, what should happen in the future.

Most people use some sort of foresight all the time - something as simple as listening to the weather forecast to prepare for the next day. A professional futurist uses formal methods to develop descriptions of possible futures. The output of a futures study may include the driving forces, assumptions, evidence or indicators of the futures. A futurist is more likely to say how or why a future could appear rather than to say what the future will be.

One of the founding principles of the field of futures studies is the idea of personal and organizational choice. Although the future is unknown, a person can identify possibilities, select the most favorable outcomes and attempt to influence events to create a desired future.

By considering systems and human agency, futurists help identify choices that affect the future, for ourselves and future generations.

What do futurists do?

Futurists work in large and small businesses, governments and non-profits, as teachers or researchers in education, and as consultants or as permanent staff. Many futurists focus on one topic such as a technology or an industry. Other futurists study broad social changes or global problems. All futurists take a very wide view of the world in both scope and time. Futurists tend to take a much broader perspective, consider longer time horizons, and include many more factors in a study than analysts such as economists, technology specialists, social critics or political commentators.

A futurist's analytical process falls into five general areas:
Framing - understanding the current state of affairs
Visioning - opening the range of possibilities
Describing - explaining or reporting on possible futures
Scanning - looking for indications of the future
Planning - creating/implementing a future direction

About Future Studies:

Wikipedia: Futurology - Future studies (also called futurology) is the study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them. There is a debate as to whether this discipline is an art or science. In general, it can be considered as a branch under the more general scope of the field of history. Futures studies (colloquially called "futures" by many of the field's practitioners) seeks to understand what is likely to continue, what is likely to change, and what is novel. Part of the discipline thus seeks a systematic and pattern-based understanding of past and present, and to determine the likelihood of future events and trends.[1] Unlike science where a narrower, more specified system is studied, future studies concerns a much bigger and more complex world system. The methodology and knowledge are much less proven as compared to natural science or even social science like sociology, economics, and political science.

While forecasting---i.e., attempts to predict future states from current trends---is a common methodology, professional scenarios often rely on "backcasting" -- i.e., asking what changes in the present would be required to arrive at envisioned alternative future states. For example, the Policy Reform and Eco-Communalism scenarios developed by the Global Scenario Group rely on the backcasting method. Practitioners of futures studies classify themselves as futurists (or foresight practitioners).

Futurists use a diverse range of forecasting methods including:
Anticipatory thinking protocols:
Causal layered analysis (CLA)
Environmental scanning
Scenario method
Delphi method
Future history
Monitoring
Backcasting (eco-history)
Back-view mirror analysis
Cross-impact analysis
Futures workshops
Failure mode and effects analysis
Futures biographies
Futures wheel
Technology roadmapping
Relevance tree
Simulation and modelling
Social network analysis
Systems engineering
Trend analysis
Morphological analysis
Technology forecasting

Backcasting starts with defining a desirable future and then works backwards to identify policies and programs that will connect the future to the present.[1] The fundamental question of backcasting asks: "if we want to attain a certain goal, what actions must be taken to get there?"[2][3]Forecasting is the process of predicting the future based on current trend analysis. Backcasting approaches the challenge of discussing the future from the opposite direction.

Resources:

Wikipedia: List of futurology topics
World Future Studies Federation
Association of Professional Futurists
Future Timeline
Acceleration Watch: Futurist