Reimagination to Reality: Our World in 2050
The year is 2050 and the planet is thriving. How did we get to this moment? In this piece, An writes from a future perspective to detail the actions that led to the stabilization of the world’s climate and people living in harmony with the environment and each other.
Reflecting back on roughly thirty years ago, many didn’t believe that the world could become what it is now in 2050. Earth’s chances seemed too bleak. In October of 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published an assessment that warned that the world would only have a dozen years to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5℃ - beyond which even half a degree would significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people. In 2019, a United Nations report suggested that because of human activities, around one million species “already face extinction, many within decades, unless action is taken to reduce the intensity of drivers of biodiversity loss”. The world was undergoing a number of systemic crises that included, “capitalism, xenophobia, racism, patriarchy, extractivism, anthropocentrism, plutocracy, productivism, and colonialism”. During a time of social and political division, these facts left people feeling overwhelmed and helpless. It felt like nothing could be done for the sake of our planet.
It took the increasing frequency of climate-related impacts like natural disasters to make the social distribution of vulnerability apparent and visible. Third-world countries were disproportionately affected by climate change, which was predominantly caused by first-world countries like the United States. We realized that if we were going to reverse the loss of nature and share resources equitably, now and in the future, the world would collectively need to enact change. These changes came in the form of systemic alternatives, which “[sought] to confront and overcome the structural causes of systemic crises” by thinking in “terms of the totality of the whole”. It wasn’t one set of best practices that solved all of our problems, it was the combination of different visions and ideas that led to today’s revival. Since all crises are interconnected, the most logical way to find a solution was to connect all efforts. In 2050, we have restored the wellbeing of our people and planet through a new culture of behavior, reformed governance, and transformative, systemic change.
To ensure a safe, sustainable future, we had to break away from the poor decision-making of our governmental agencies. Every day, leaders make decisions that affect our earth – from governmental policies, business strategies, international treaties, to local community decisions on development. In the 2020s, the decisions being made were simply not enough. In fact, governmental policies were lacking, and our natural environment was left to degrade at a rapid rate. We realized that the bottom-up approach was not going to cut it. Individual behavior changes like voluntarily reducing plastic usage or eating lower on the food chain were still not mainstream and could only make so much of a difference. We needed top-down transformation in order for our global system to efficiently accommodate our planet’s cry for help. Understanding this, we adopted a multifaceted approach, in which governments, NGOs, corporations, scientists, and multilateral stakeholders were involved. The world’s governance achieved a pathway that now recognizes and empowers people as global citizens with universal rights. The change was supported by creating a value system that prioritized humans and the environment.
Our capitalist system was evidently no longer sustainable, so our society underwent the Great Transition – a deep, systemic change that abandons consumerism for the benefit of humanity and nature. We adopted a planned eco-socialist economy where “societies exercise freedom to control the decisions that affect its destiny”. As a result, degrowth was also activated within the United States through the decoupling of employment from economic growth. Degrowth is the “equitable downscaling of production and consumption that reduces society’s extraction of energy and raw materials and generation of waste. It is the abolition of economic growth as a social objective”. With these measures in place, governance now focuses on optimal livelihood for all rather than a few. Everyone has access to basic needs like food, housing, healthcare, education, clean water, and sanitation. Money is invested in programs to enhance livelihoods of people to make their communities more resilient.
The energy sector made large strides over the years. We now have the ability to rely almost exclusively on clean, renewable sources. However, the path to get to this point was not easy. In the late 2010s, the Trump Administration leading the United States caused a delay in action. Leaders weren’t valuing our collective future, but instead prioritizing profit over people. Trump’s goal of securing “energy dominance” was rooted in attempting to revive the fossil fuel and coal industries, obstructing natural landscapes, and marginalizing communities. Regardless of this obstacle, non-profit organizations and research institutes like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) were taking matters into their own hands. WWF developed a report concluding that the “technologies and sustainable energy resources known or available [in 2007] are sufficient to meet the challenge of doubling global energy demand projected by 2050, while avoiding dangerous climatic change of more than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels”. However, the report also reiterated that “time is of the essence”. As Trump was voted out of office during the 2020 elections, the Democratic party was able to regain control and enact change within the energy sector, especially within the parameters of the Green New Deal. Jobs were guaranteed for fossil fuel and coal industry workers and clean energy was promoted as a human right and common good. The energy efforts in the United States included community, worker, and public ownership, with environmental health improving for all.
If they weren’t experiencing them already, countries around the globe witnessed the positive outcomes of switching to renewables. Thus, they followed suit and the world collectively invested enough, eventually making what used to be an idealized concept of ditching dirty fossil fuels a reality. In the 2010s, we only began to dabble in the area of energy technologies like solar, wind, hydropower, and geothermal. We explored the capacities of each technology by carrying out extensive research and innovation to determine which would serve us best economically, socially, and environmentally. The value and potential of renewable energy was realized, and the world fully committed in the 2020s. This commitment was driven by economic policies and measures as well as urgent intergovernmental actions. The link was finally broken between energy services and primary energy production; energy efficiency was optimized with low-emissions technologies. Flexible fuels were made possible with the development of energy storage and accommodating infrastructure. The world finally replaced its high-carbon coal usage with low-carbon sources. In addition, carbon capture and storage technology advanced and now successfully serve as a complementary mechanism to reduce carbon emissions.
Like the energy sector, the way our world consumes and lives has dramatically evolved. Thirty years ago, our food system did not have environmentally sustainable ways of production nor did it even provide nutritious food for our booming population. Simultaneously, the food system including production, transportation, processing, and waste put an unsustainable strain on natural resources. In response to this issue, we needed to find a way to feed ourselves more sustainably. This was accomplished with technological innovation and the implementation of better practices. It started with reducing growth in demand for resource-intensive foods by shifting diet norms and reducing food loss and waste. With that behavior change, we were able to increase food production without expanding agricultural lands through increasing crop yields and pasture productivity.
These vast changes were complemented by a variety of small-scale transformations. Amidst the Great Transition, the popularity of eco-villages increased. An eco-village is “an intentional, traditional or urban community that is consciously designed through locally owned participatory processes in all four dimensions of sustainability to regenerate social and natural environments”. Within these ecovillages, systems like urban farms and community gardens took off. People began to see the value of investing in local procedures and the power of do-it-yourself projects. Not only do these sorts of local functions provide abundance for a group of people, but it also builds community. Food production is not the only positive benefit of the popularity of eco-villages. These communities provide a space for individuals to enact the change they want to see for themselves and future generations. The practice of sharing and collaboration is invaluable and has proved to be a key behavior change that has led society to become what it is today.
Change starts with new ideas and courageous leaders, but it’s also put into action by popular demand. Undoubtedly, it is made possible by socially, environmentally, and economically just decisions by people as a collective. Back in 2020, it was impossible to say whether the world would be better or worse in 2050. However, humanity resiliently persisted despite all obstacles with one common platform that inspired monumental change – hope.