It’s 2030 And The World Looks Like This
IT’S 2030 and the Scotsman exists as a free pamphlet given out at King’s Cross station and churches in the area.
What else of 2030? “It’s…
“…A chilling world where licences are required for having children and questioning global warming is a crime could be ushered in by climate change”.
Why wait. Bring it on.
The scenario is one of five potential responses to climate change described by a panel of 60 experts in the study by Forum for the Future, a sustainable development group.
Not sure if we get a vote on which world we want, but know that the “five possible futures for mankind are”:
• ‘GOLDEN AGE’: Rapid innovation in energy efficiency and new technology has enabled a low-carbon economy with almost no need for changes in lifestyle. The result is an increasingly individualistic and consumer-focused world, with a growing divide between rich and poor. Some call this a golden age of technology and freedom, but others call it a very shaky house of cards.
We turn the card and it says “a golden age of technology and freedom”. Sounds like now…
• CARBON WORLD: Carbon has become one of the most important and expensive commodities in the world, unleashing unprecedented levels of creativity across the global economy. It has also created a new type of consumerist world, with a “share with your neighbour” ethos. Many companies also now meet underlying needs by selling services, not products.
Carbon. Diamonds. Expensive. Sounds like now. Services not products. Sounds like the UK now. The experts are not being creative enough. Perhaps they need an injection of raw carbon?
• GREEN EUTOPIA: A “well-being” economy has come to the fore across the world, whose key values include low-impact lifestyles more quality time with family and friends, better health and an increased sense of community. However, “free-riders” plunder resources and exploit the vulnerable. Several large cities set themselves up as “havens of real capitalism”.
South Africa becomes the model. To South Africans it sounds like now…
• DRACONIAN STEPS: Tough measures have been adopted to combat climate change in a world which woke up late to the threat, pushing economies to the limit of what they can deliver. Governments took a stronger and stronger role, rationalising industries to reduce their climate change impact, even putting “carbon monitors” in people’s homes to watch their energy use.
Gordon Brown is till in power. Sounds like now…
• OPEN WAR: Globalisation has gone into retreat and countries focus on security and access to resources at any cost. Accusations of cheating over emissions agreements, such as through undeclared power stations, cause international co-operation to collapse. Terrorists capitalise on the chaos to further their nationalist causes by launching devastating bio-chemical attacks.
That’s more like it. Here’s one vision of tomorrow land we can make a film about that can pack ‘em into the megaplex.
Unless the theatre has been overrun by Islamic terrorists and we’re all trapped inside? In which case, watch out for the Russians. Sounds a lot like now…
Flood: Coming To A Cinema, Street, Garage, Shop Near You
Posted: 15th, October 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Reviews Comments (4) | TrackBack | Permalink
