What I Want
I choose a future without unnecessary wars and violence. I want it to be one in which Nature flourishes, and I can walk in the hills and woods and listen to the birds. I need a tomorrow where the rivers sparkle with life, and there are beavers in the streams creating new wetlands.
I would like a new education system for young people that is full of inspiration and the joy of learning, one where they begin to understand what is really important in life. I would like a way of learning where the children gain empathy and compassion and the ability to work together without competition. I would like them to learn that we are part of Nature, and to know that for us to thrive we need to watch over it and appreciate its gifts.
I want equality and justice, and people to be free to be themselves as long as they are not harming others.
You will, no doubt, want something different, but I have learned already in your responses to my blog, that it will be a difference full of thought and caring.
But I see no way of getting there…
There is no roadmap to a future like that: no vision of creating something better that will allow people to be happy and fulfilled – no way to reach The Future We Choose.
Unless we create it!
I am choosing to branch out a little. I am creating a new project. It will be called The Future We Choose. I hope also to continue my blog with its intention to encourage everybody to have hope and to be active.
I believe that if we don’t choose our future somebody else will. We will be at the mercy of investors and billionaires who want to build data centres, support fossil fuels or come up with crackpot technological schemes to take carbon out of the atmosphere. (These are likely to do more harm than good.)
At the same time the dangers of inertia are enormous.
Which Way Are We Going?
- We can choose to carry on with the lifestyles we have.
- We can let somebody else decide for us.
- We can choose to act and take some sort of control of our future.
I want to go for number 3.
It will not be easy! Talking to friends, they say, “it can’t be done … external forces are too strong … money speaks in this world … I am only one person … ‘They’ have all the power … ” and so on.
I believe we can and must decide what we want our future to look like.
If not –> disaster!
We Have Already Done Amazing Things
Before I tell you what my project will look like, I want to remind you of how far we have already come. This is what we are capable of if we put our minds to it.
- Global temperature rise predictions for 2100 are now a degree lower than they were ten years ago. They have decreased from around 3.6°C to 2.6°C, thanks to the Paris Agreement’s impact. (2.6° is definitely not sufficient but a 3.6° increase would have been catastrophic.)
- A recent report on renewable energy sources shows that renewable sources are growing quickly and will play a vital role in tackling Climate Change. According to them approximately one seventh of the world’s energy mix comes from renewable energy. “Note that this is based on renewable energy’s share in the energy mix. Energy consumption represents the sum of electricity, transport, and heating.” Globally about one third of our electricity comes from renewables. Ember Energy shows that “since 2000, renewables have expanded from 19% to more than 30% of global electricity, driven by an increase in solar and wind from 0.2% in 2000 to a record 13.4% in 2023.”
- Climate Farmers are showing that Regenerative Agriculture is gaining momentum across the globe. From the long list of benefits it brings for farmers to its ability to combat modern-day challenges, it’s easy to understand why. Not only does this style of agriculture repair our depleted soils, enhance biodiversity and mitigate the effects of climate change (with the soil’s ability to draw down carbon from the atmosphere) but it means farmers practising regenerative agriculture can generate new revenue for their climate efforts.
- According to the Global Rewilding Alliance, rewilding is happening everywhere! The following from their website are just words. But do look at their examples and any others you can find. I find them so exciting. “Communities on every continent are responding to a deep, positive, visceral drive to support Nature’s recovery. We are coming together under the shared vision to be Nature’s guardians and good ancestors to coming generations.”
Perhaps those things don’t seem very significant to you. As I always say “it is too little and too slow.” But it is happening, humanity has struggled and fought and argued and we are making a difference. Let’s build on that. But let’s do it now.
Full Speed Ahead
I have only mentioned a few aspects of our progress, but I believe I have shown in my blog that there are very many good things happening. We just need to persuade our politicians to act faster.
My New Project
I hope you will join me in this project as I need your ideas and opinions.
WE NEED A PLAN AND A VISION
In my search for an existing plan as to how humankind will move forward, I have found nothing concrete.
I have found government emissions targets, projects on saving the oceans and biodiversity, books and organisations that are hoping to end both Capitalism and never-ending growth and so on. All good stuff.
But I have found nothing on the vision we need to create a better future.
Not only do we need a plan for the obvious things, but we need to decide issues like “how will we run our cities? how will we school our children? what values do we need for a more peaceful future? how will we tackle inequality? what is important to us – – – – – – – what do we want?”
Project Details
Phase 1 will be an interactive Facebook Page, where you can tell me what you think will make a better future, and allowing me to collect your ideas.
Phase 2 will be a website to collect some of the really interesting, hopeful things that people are already doing to achieve a better tomorrow.
Phase 3 will be contacting politicians to say. “This is what people really want to see in their future.” I hope to find a way of working with them to create momentum and a vision people can believe in.
Do, please, let me know what you think about this idea. Thank you.
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Photos by Doreen Hosking and by Denys Nevozhai and Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash