What will the world look like in 10 years? After two years of living through a pandemic, what was already rising has now been launched. We have to look at it and become the deep thinkers we are capable of becoming if we are to help guide safely, equanimity and peace into it —our world in 10 years.
We live in a complex and multilayered world. If we don’t care about it, then who will?
Climate
Climate change, in some ways, is appearing more frightening that large groups of people seem to deny the inevitable onslaught of catastrophic events that are hitting the world now and those events experts suggest will come in our near future.
If we ignore and deny something it may seem all is well for now. But as we’ve just experienced throughout a two-year global pandemic, that which we turn a blind eye to can hit us so devastatingly that we might not ever recover. It was true of the senseless and countless deaths from the virus and it will be true to the inconceivable rise of ocean temperatures killing coral reefs and ecosystems, rising waters that flood cities and chain reaction to food supplies leading to starvation in areas worldwide.
Food.
An estimated 155 million people around the world are in danger of food inadequacies. That will increase significantly as the war in Ukraine continues, shorting the supply of soft wheat, corn and sunflower oil that many parts of the world now rely.
That is, as food is lacking, and we become less productive, and climate deteriorates the land and changes conditions of which produces a healthy product —hunger and starvation and migration will increase.
On top of that, GMO and chemical alteration through pesticides have not only made food less flavorful and harder to eat and digest, but has introduced more potions into our human and pet bodies than ever before. And the waste from the products have entered our biosphere and begun poisoning our planets natural systems.
Acceptance.
In our world, humans are already divided in part due to socio-economic and both socio-educational and cultural inequity. Now, with an increase of political power grabbing, the millions of dollars thrown into advertising and disinformation campaigns that are shaping peoples lives and minds in support of that power grab —nearly has crippled our ability to critical think.
We no longer accept each other, respect each other’s opinions, lifestyles, religions, and we often basically live in a reality to our personal choosing rather than understanding we are part of each other and part of a greater whole.
Prosperity.
Some people made a lot on money during this global two-year pandemic. On the one hand, companies and stockholders made billions, profits soared and some like Elon Musk increased wealth to the tune of 150 Billion. That’s right, made an additional 150 Billion dollars. Just as on the other hand there were long lines of people who didn’t have enough to put food on the table.
Policy and talking points will aim to widen that divide until we, the people, are able to not just understand the dynamics of policy but participate in the developing and shaping of such.
Housing, education, healthcare, motor vehicles, transportation, infrastructure including roads, bridges, internet and more are also part of the development of policy that all Americans should be participatory in.
Technology.
We can argue that technology has brought upon us this great divide. We can also argue that technology has given us the ability to communicate with likeminded people from all around the world. It brings both knowledge of cultures and traditions, exposes us to more art and works of a peace-building people such as His Holiness The Dalai Lama, trauma experts like Gabor Maté and Thomas Hübl, and voices of civil leaders like Bernice King and more. Technology has also made it easier for disinformation and misinformation campaigning by grifters and thugs and extremists of which we’re experiencing today.
Disposable Society.
Americans, in particular, may also be prone to refusing to look at their own habits and beliefs. Shopping, over-shopping and disposing of product merely because we don’t like or want it, foster the unhealthy reality that is shaping our political, domestic and international future.
Take time to allow that to sink in. If we are worried about China becoming the world leading economy, then why do we continue to shop and dispose of product at such a fast rate that further supports what that which is feared?
We could argue “everything” is made in China or elsewhere, while it is mostly due to consumption that product is made to begin with. A classic example would be in the beginning of the pandemic shoppers overbought and stockpiled merchandise that left store shelves empty and further complicated the extremes between the rich and poor.
In the near future, automation will also surely replace more jobs and peoples livelihoods if we don’t work together to create new jobs that support a growing tech world. Those jobs could be addressing climate change and cleaning up environments that humans has carelessly made toxic.
Wellbeing.
More than 6 million people have died from a virus that quickly spread throughout the world, while political division further accelerated its spread by repeating misleading information about the disease itself. That is a telling story.
One image of “health and wellbeing” we see often on television or in movies is the family who sits together at the dinner table, with a fine spread of food and wine, all of whom children went off to college earning a degree that enabled them to take a slice of the dream and begin their own families. Yet today, in real life, both parents needing to work to bring stability of income, may be better represented shown having fast food for breakfast and lunch, while leaving a frozen dinner for whoever is around in the evening for dinner. That is not wellbeing, that is the forecast for illness and instability in society. How do we fix it?
Future.
Many scientists, sustainability experts, United Nations leaders and futurists agree that competitiveness and innovation and the sustainability of our planet will rely on cooperation and unity. To have faith in the world, one that we all believe in. While some argue the opposite and recite that America must come first, or any other group just name one of your choosing —the essential fact remains that thinking one come before another is only the projection of rugged individualism and dumbed down can be called the “Me Generation” as we so often hear.
What can we alter today to shape a safe and sustainable future tomorrow?
As we point to all the negatives, we must also point toward all the positives. Internet, AI, biotechnology, 5G, new systems like Internet of Things IoT, and more will be where our most essential focus is needed for a sustainable culture. And, I’d say we must build empathy and compassion into those systems. The future holds promise of brighter and healthier days, if we so choose the most essential methods of living well —teach each other to love and respect all things, educate each other in heart and by book, learn to listen with kindness and civility, and through the Grace of God may we develop empathy, a deeper sensing and feeling of one another.
If we don’t care, then who will?
"I believe we have Power to Redefine our personal future. As a global thinking society, we possess the skill and means to lift, empower, and motivate each other —we can turn our dreams into realities. I believe Love is the common thread between hope and possibility shared by all religions, tribes and species." — Richard Silvia, Artist Statement