View from 2060 – How We Successfully Navigated Climate Change

Four Adaptations to Survive an Unpredictable World

Looking backwards from a future view in 2060 offers the benefit of “2020 vision.” To see our past from a resilient and secure place is very comforting, especially with the roller coaster of the past 40 years.

I’ll be the first to admit that mistakes were made and people died from rising ocean levels, intense weather, and draught which reduced global food supply. It is heartbreaking to know the loss of life and destruction of property that could have been avoided if we had only acted earlier. In truth, scientists were warning us for decades before we finally took it seriously. The constant questioning about whether climate change was happening or not by parties interested in maintaining the status quo slowed us down considerably. It took us to the edge of the cliff -- but in the end we did come together as global citizens and combined our resources and efforts.

Sitting on my porch now on this warm fall October morning in 2060, I marvel at the initial unwillingness of humans to act on their own behalf when it came to the climate emergency. Here in America, with our abundant resources, we were spared much of the tragedy other less developed nations experienced. Many of these countries, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sudan were in already environmentally challenging parts of the planet where resources and support were sparse.

A Turning Point

After decades of denial, an acceleration occurred in a surprisingly short time after the repetitive and increasingly destructive weather could no longer be ignored. The economic devastation quickly out spent the ability of local, state and national governments to survive. It was then Americans finally agreed that serious action was necessary.

In a handful of countries such as Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, and Costa Rica, governments stepped up to push the shift to adaptation. These nations prioritized a set of overarching concepts adopted by the United Nations which greatly accelerated their progress. Let me highlight four priorities, including using less energy, shifting their economies towards sustainability, reducing the length of their supply chains, and rewarding businesses and citizens for supporting a circular and more localized economy.

Use Less Energy

Overwhelming evidence turned the tide in the United States about half way into the second decade. A significant number of our elected representatives finally conceded that the burning of fossil fuels contributed to the global temperature increases. To encourage everyone to use less energy a global campaign was launched.

The “Use Less” campaign as it was popularly remembered, turned out to be a clear statement which applied to virtually every aspect of life. Initially the focus was on using less energy in transportation and heating homes. This concept then spread to other areas demonstrating we can maintain a high quality of life while living more sustainably. People really wanted to see examples of the campaign’s success. Fortunately, it did not take long for positive results to begin to emerge.

Across the nation, campaigns were funded to add insulation to existing houses and building to higher energy efficiency standards. Architects designed affordable modular homes made of environmentally sustainable materials such as hemp to house the homeless. People switched out lighting to ultra-efficient bulbs, and adopted no-drive days and errand compounding to encourage less driving. An educational campaign was rolled out nationwide with versions of ads in multiple languages showing how using less energy had no negative effect on quality of life. The misconception of people living in a dark cave was dispelled as excellent examples of people enjoying life and interacting more with their neighbors were highlighted.

From an Extraction to a Harvest Economy

While using less energy was important, just as critical was where the energy came from. Globally we had derived the majority of our energy from fossil fuels which were extracted from the earth and converted into electricity and petroleum products.

When we accelerated the shift to tapping energy sources which were harvested from the sun, wind, biomass, geothermal, waves, and ocean tides, we reduced a significant percentage of the extracted resources which were adding to the climate crisis. This shift had the added benefit of producing millions of useful jobs, jobs that the post pandemic populations felt were more aligned with their values of doing work that does good for people and the planet.

Shorter Supply Chains

The economic disruptions which stemmed from the 2020-2023 global pandemic, highlighted the downside of our dependence on long and complex global supply chains. Since its introduction by the India Spice Trade in the 16th Century, excessively long supply chains had become a dominant player in how goods move around the planet.  We recognized the global reach and almost instantaneous web of communications were no match for the disruptions causes by the COVID pandemic and the economic dislocation of people in an attempt to save lives.

Long supply chains were uneconomic. Instead, the re-localization movement stimulated huge manufacturing shifts across the globe and resulted in a significant increase in American manufacturing and production. We followed what the Post Carbon Institute describes as re-localization, "… a strategy to build societies based on the local production of food, energy and goods, and the local development of currency, governance and culture."

Among the benefits of this buy, make, use local approach was the need for long-distance travel was greatly reduced. Instead of hopping into our cars for every local task, we returned to long distance travel under special circumstances and for adventure.

Circular Economy

The other significant result of the re-localization trend was to support what is referred to as a “circular economy.” In nature there is no waste. Everything left over from one process is used as a feedstock for another. For example, leftover barley malt is used by farmers who feed it to their cows where their poop generates methane to help heat the dairy building. We recognized that when products and money stay local they are circulated at a much higher rate than the older one-way flow of the previous economy.

The re-localization effort, reducing energy consumption while increasing renewable energy, and re-using resources required several decades to occur. Societal shift of this magnitude take a massive commitment from politicians, leaders of industry, and a citizenry willing to leave the familiarity of what is for the sake of what could be. Together, these four priorities took us to a society where we minimized the burden of greenhouse gases on our planet. Somehow, the more we became conscious global citizens responding to our planet with attention and respect, the more we treated one another with kindness and appreciation.

And that’s how we got from there to here.