Steffen, A. (2016). A Talk Given at a Conservation Meeting One Hundred Years From Now… Solutions 7(1): 11–13. thesolutionsjournal.com/2016/1/a-talk-given-at-a-conservation-meeting-100-years-from-now
Envisioning
A Talk Given at a Conservation Meeting One Hundred Years From Now… by Alex Steffen
This article is part of a regular section in Solutions in which the author is challenged to envision a future society in which all the right changes have been made.
W
e meet today to speak of great ancestors. Here in 2115, we may find it hard to understand that a century ago, many people actually believed there was nothing we could do to stave off the planetary crisis we faced. Many had given up. Many did too little. Some even lived in denial of increasingly loud warnings from the world’s scientists, or refused, on ideological grounds, to even consider change. Humanity made calamitous mistakes in the 20th and early 21st centuries, sometimes in the name of progress, but more often springing from inattention, ignorance, or simple shortsighted greed. The losses were staggering. We live today surrounded by the legacy of those mistakes, of that carelessness. The missing ice and rising seas, the burnt forests, the growing deserts, the toxic places, the tens of thousands of vanished plants and animals, the weather chaos we all experience, the conflicts over water and food, and the refugees they’ve created. We’ve lost so much. We came far too close to losing nearly everything. If things went on as they were, we might have. Instead, we live today on a healing planet. Yes, much has been lost, but much was saved or restored or reinvented, and what was saved and healed and made anew has become a powerful legacy.
Mark
The sun sets over a solar farm in Ontario, Canada.
Those gifts became the seedbeds from which sprouted our new world. That we have so much left from which to coax a long and bountiful tomorrow is no accident. Those seeds of hope were saved and planted and tended to by people who made the decision that they would live as if the future mattered. As if nature mattered. As if we mattered. These were visionary people. Responsible people. Courageous people. All around the world, our best ancestors took up the challenge of leaving a different, bolder legacy, one not of error and loss, but of leadership, stewardship, and innovation.
On every continent and in every sea, some of our most important wild places were made safe. Ecological restoration was begun. Species were saved. In the face of planetary catastrophe, the tide was turned. Forests have begun once again to cover the Earth. The oceans teem with renewed life. In every community, people and nature are being reconnected. We live, again, in a world of whales, tall trees, and awe-struck children. Our prosperity has found its rightful role within that living planetary fabric. Our great cities, our
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