“Let’s dream” is a quote I have lived throughout my life and coincidentally it’s also the name of my favourite song by The Crew Cuts “Sh-Boom (Life Could Be Dreams)”. It is a lovely quote that brings out a positive optimism. An optimism that demands action and inspires change. Change is the only constant on this Earth. I love the idea that changes are coming. So the question is, as the future of the world, how do we create an environment resilient and adaptable to this change? One thing is clear that whether we are thinking about the climate crisis, the future of fashion or how to live more sustainably, we must always lead with optimism.
I have always been interested in how innovation and sustainable development add value to people’s lives. As I fell deep into this rabbit hole researching about design innovation and sustainable design impact, I came across this quote on the @futureearth Instagram page-
“We will get nowhere if we do not first imagine the future we hope to live in.” – Marie Eaton
This quote by Marie Eaton resonated with me since it’s so similar to “Let’s dream”. Every time this quote popped into my mind; a question followed “What does your Future Earth look like?”. Even though this question looks easy, the answer to it is very difficult. There is no one right answer to this question and it’s open to interpretation.
The definition of “future” is a time yet to come based on what we do. So I thought why not ask my close friends and Yes family from different phases and places of life and include their perspective and version of their Future Earth. So here are a handful of them.
“A Dystopian one.”- Deeya, 22, India
“My future earth would be more creative and open-minded towards evolving efficiently and in a friendly fashion. To evolve means to develop into an advance state or in other words for the better. For evolution to take place we need to have variations, and selective-pressure on individuals to make sure we move as a society.” – Michal, 23, Canada
“My future earth looks like a wonderful green space with vertical gardening, very green cities and a lot of public transport and bicycles around. People will not be mad at each other, people will have time to do things they love and hunger is not something one need not think of. People will care for each other and develop together and will be taught essential values in school.” – Daniel, 21, Spain
“Although the idea of imagining the future and having high hopes is a strange idea for me, I do have some thoughts about how far we can get and how different the Earth will be. The main aspect I think of revolves around technology and how it might affect the community. It seems like people will spend less time on their basic routines and more time working on themselves and the Earth. These changes should, optimistically, come down to more of an open community and a sustainable environment.” – Gülsah, 21, Turkey
“My future looks crazy modern. I believe that progress can only arise with sacrifices. We either progress a lot inflicting a little damage to our planet which in the short term can be fixed at a later point or we don’t progress at all and are stuck. I think urbanisation will play the most important role, the more people will live together in cities the less private transportation is required and we can focus on building sustainable public transport networks. We could focus on building highly productive networks between the cities. The benefit of this would also be that we get an agglomeration of knowledge in certain areas. It’s always been the case but imagine it like Silicon Valley, but EVERYWHERE and every city has a different speciality. That way progress can be sped up immensely. I believe that the areas of the world which currently are a problem, especially for the environment (India being one of them) will become some of the most important areas in the world. There is still so much development and potential left to be uncovered and I believe that can happen if handled the right way.
In short: Sacrifice = progress = better future
If we use all our resources trying to figure out how to not be dependent on the planet for them anymore then we’ve managed to fix all our problems. Whether or not that will happen, who knows, but I for once am Hella optimistic. People are very smart and we get more crazy smart ideas every day. Progress is exponential so just imagine what the next 50 years are like.” – Marco, 21, Germany
“I think people focus way too much on the past and hold onto grudges. My hope for the future earth is that people stop focusing on what has happened and rather take inspiration from the past to fix present problems to make the future better. The part about let’s keep dreaming is also great because we have to dream and think of things we could never imagine. I am religious and there’s a quote in the Bible Genesis 11:6 “then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them”. People are creating things no one could even imagine. We landed something that we made on Earth on Mars! I think people lose hope easily and give up. I think we should never give up or stop fighting for what we want and believe in. Thomas Edison didn’t give up and now we have light. This is also why a lot of religious countries are poor because they accept their “fate” instead of striving and doing their best to better themselves and the world around them. Therefore, MY future earth looks like a place where people don’t forget where they are from and embrace who they are. If you strive to impress others you will never be happy with yourself. We should accept that people are different and combine our diverse strengths to work together for the greater good. People must accept that they can’t change the mistakes made and instead learn from them. With education, people will become more aware of the environment and start taking care of it.” – Joya, 15, Myanmar
“My future earth is a tug of war between pessimism and optimism. On one end, I see the effects of climate change and the unstoppable feedback loops looming over us. These cyclical chain reactions that we are quickly approaching because of carbon release are scary, to say the least. Not to mention the environmental racism that is happening right now. BUT on the other hand, I see innovation all over the place. At this point, it’s almost obligatory to pursue something that will inevitably help our planet because we’re running out of time. I go to one of the topmost sustainable universities in the United States and I see what they are doing and that gives me hope. The USA holds major power and a major influence over the world for the good, the bad and the ugly (we are one of the top CO2 producers so don’t think we’re off the hook by ANY means) but sometimes I wish it was culturally appropriate (and overall feasible) to implement so many of the innovations we have here to the rest of the country and the rest of the world. Education has opened up a new perspective for me on international sustainable events and inspired me to run a fellowship focusing on people, planet, profit and international innovations pertaining to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. I do believe education, public policy, and overall convincing of major businesses to do better are the key components in my mind that can move us to a more sustainable future. The way I foresee it, I think the future is a challenging slow movement towards political and social change, but a movement moving in a forward direction. Not that I’m relying solely on one person and I know we are just one country, but I’m hopeful of what Biden will implement to help considering the role the USA has on global change.”- Caitlin, 22, USA
The way I now see it is that it seems wrong to think in one dimension and call it “my” future earth when we can think in three dimensions and call it “our” Future Earth. An earth with kindness, friendship, collaboration and a thriving community who are constantly inspiring each other to be better versions of themselves. An earth where we are creating, innovating and building to create sustainable tangible technologies that add values to people’s lives. An earth where we empower each other to maximise our resources and live consciously.
The Whole Earth Catalog released by Stewart Brand in 1968 was a revolutionary catalogue that changed the way people thought and perceived things and also served as an inspiration for the creation of Google 35. It provided personal power i.e. the power to the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment and share his adventure with whoever is interested. I hope this article could do even a little of that. We live on the world’s greatest planet; the earth and we have a better opportunity now than ever before to shift the paradigm we’re living in to one that is more in line with the sort of world that we think we should be living in.
The future is a scary place and not a lot of people like to think about it. But in order to build a more sustainable world, we have to be first to imagine one – and for that, we must dare to dream with hope and optimism. So my fellow earthlings, let me ask you this question “What does your Future Earth look like and how do you plan to achieve it?”
