How should we think about a world that doesn’t yet exist?
Can you Imagine what a Post-carbon Future would look like?
For decades, visions of possible climate futures have been thought of, on the one hand, Pollyanna-like faith that normality would endure, and on the other, an ecological end of days, during which perhaps billions of lives would be devastated or destroyed.
It’s difficult to know where you are going if you don't have a clear vision of what the future should look like, in particular, a positive vision that you could get excited about and motivated to really make a transformative change.
Polling suggests that people are much more likely to act when future scenarios are placed in a positive light, emphasizing terms such as “resilience,” “sustainability,” and “nature-based solutions”.
It is important for us to share an encouraging narrative, one where we think and then act on those positive, yet realistic solutions — without downplaying the dire implications of climate change.
While we cannot stop global warming overnight, we can slow the rate and limit the staggering amount of carbon we flood the atmosphere with every day.
If all human emissions of heat-trapping gases were to stop today, Earth’s temperature would continue to rise for a few decades as ocean currents bring excess heat stored in the deep ocean back to the surface. Once this excess heat radiated out to space, Earth’s temperature would stabilize.