Recently there is an interesting dichotomy that has presented itself with the rise of publicly traded space companies.

The ultimate 'hedge' one could argue, is the rise of space companies and sense of urgency it ushers in because of the current and very present environmental crisis our planet finds itself in.

Industry will undoubtedly pursue the continued commercialization of space travel. Building the infrastructure to support more than a handful of humans at a time in space will take decades. An entire industry will likely develop out of the flow of capital, creating hubs of activity that may potentially create companies of strategic advantage. While the costs of space travel have plummeted since the days of the Mercury and Saturn programs, only a handful of nations have space programs due to the enormous barriers to entry – until now.

With the various space companies listed or near listing, consider how quickly capital markets are changing to better reflect the world we live in. The stock exchanges most valuable companies fifty years ago are gone, replaced by today’s technology firms. Not surprisingly, the computing power of the rockets that took humans to the moon now pale in comparison to that in your Smartphone. It is also not a stretch to consider how the other side of the equation will also change the companies we can invest in going forward. That is to say, how our environment will increasingly dictate our investing.

Fossil fuel companies will end up holding stranded assets that they will have marked down to zero as carbon emissions laws are introduced globally. Some forward-thinking companies, who have seen the significance of embarking on their green transition, have handsomely rewarded investors while others will not be able to bring product to market and will go the way of Blockbuster video.

Utility companies will consist of renewable energy sources, lamentably not chief among them, nuclear. Despite the advances in safety, robotics and engineering, building reactors will remain difficult and capital intensive. However, both onshore and offshore wind generation will become increasingly called upon to light our homes and charge our cars. Once again, as governments put into place incentives and stimulus packages, the rising capital tide will lift the investor flotilla.

Agricultural technology will also continue to flourish alongside the growing need for food security. Highly efficient, sustainable food in increasingly uncertain growing seasons and weather patterns will become a question of survival. Addressing the long term viability of cross country transport of lettuce or tomatoes will become at hand, especially as costs continue to rise.

Water will also become an asset class over time. Developing technologies in water management, tied into agriculture that can grow food in increasingly saline soil will become crucial to the survival of many part of the world where freshwater is not nearly as plentiful as it is here in Canada. Some have called it ‘tomorrow’s oil’.

And there’s medical advances. Recent developments in technology compress the discovery to delivery tract of vaccines and therapies, based in large part on the use of processing power. Gene therapies now use messenger-RNA to deliver protein scripts directly into the cell. Sequencing has made quantum leaps and our understanding of what ails us continues to develop through technology.

Those are but a few of the changes we can expect to happen in the coming decades. Consider how prominently these ideas could feature in your portfolio and the importance of introducing some (or all) of these themes and how they can be woven into your wealth management experience.