Sustainable, Just, and Secure
...the world has managed to cut carbon emissions to zero, decreasing climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, preventing irreversible and catastrophic impacts to humans and our environment
The year is 2060, and through unprecedented global cooperation and a shift to renewable energy sources, the world has managed to cut carbon emissions to zero, decreasing climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, preventing irreversible and catastrophic impacts to humans and our environment. As a species, we have survived, but our lives are much more local than before. Ordinary people do not often travel far from home, and many of our goods are produced locally. Much work has been automated, reducing the work week to four days, but everyone receives a universal basic income that allows them to live comfortably. People now have more time to care for themselves and others and to engage in activity without concern for its income generating potential. The world is now sustainable, just, and secure. Global capitalism has waned as the dominant economic system following a series of social, economic, health, and ecological crises that shifted power to workers. When people look back on 2020, they will want to remember how unfettered capitalist accumulation founded on slavery and colonialism and based in the financialization of the global economy led to a worldwide health and economic crisis that no one was adequately prepared for.
Octavia Butler's DAWN inspires me when I think about the future. In this novel, the first in Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy, a woman named Lilith interbreeds with an alien species called the Oankali, who blend with other species to evolve, following a nuclear apocalypse on earth in order to ensure the survival of humanity. The Oankali are attracted to the human body's ability to generate cancer because it can help them reshape themselves, and they believe that interbreeding will help humans resolve their fatal combination of intelligence and hierarchical tendencies. This story shows us how humans can adapt to survive following a planetary catastrophe.
Lauren is an Annenberg School of Communication Dissertation fellow for 2020-21.
by Lauren: https://medium.com/@laurenlevitt/sex-work-and-networks-of-support-99b9db3055d4
Other resources:
https://library.wmo.int/doc_nu...
https://www.amazon.com/Plenitu...
Image: Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0) - Kate Gardiner
