50 years from now, we will have established a globally-connected ecological society.
That’s not just wishy-washy ecosocialist utopianism. It’s a scientific fact that must be true in order for us to survive as a civilization.https://t.co/Pg0AH6FP4N pic.twitter.com/B3Wld8CCAY
— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) April 23, 2020
https://thecorrespondent.com/422/earth-day-2070/55867161658-af6e6fe2
Eric HOLTHAUS
Climate correspondent
What could the world look like 50 years from today, on the 100th anniversary of Earth Day?
What will our generation’s Earthrise photo be?
For 2070, author Emma Marris has a vision of an ecological society, one that has transformed its core set of values:
“Borders will be softer; backyards messier. Wilderness corridors will thread through farmlands and cities; floodplains will store carbon, produce food, and control floods. Kids will climb trees in schoolyard orchards to pick fruit,” she told National Geographic in a recent interview.
The world in 2070 will not be a utopia. We’ve already locked in enough climate change to melt the Arctic, no matter what we choose from here. But we will have a world that works for everyone in a way that it just doesn’t right now – that, in the words of Joanna Macy, is “the work that reconnects”. That is our shared goal now.
A world not focused on growth, but on life.
A world not focused on ownership, but on solidarity.
A world not focused on competition, but on connection.
Those might sound like wishy-washy socialist utopian dreams, but they must be true for our civilisation to survive. So, I believe that they will become true, and it will happen in the next 50 years.
Right now, we are suffering with our world. But that suffering isn’t inevitable. Over the next 50 years we will be tearing down, building up, and finding meaning in it all as a truly planetary civilisation for the first time in our species’ history.
