It’s hard to imagine a time when The Sound of Music could win an Oscar, the first personal computer was still nine years away, and one of the likely leaders of the western world was barely out of the womb. In 2051, 42 years from now, will we look back at today with similar relief at how far we’ve come?
How much can life change between now and 2051? To answer that, we need to go back to 1966. Here are a few things that happened.
- The Pill was declared safe for human use
- Insulin was first synthesised in China
- Laws against drink driving were introduced in the UK
- Chairman Mao launched China’s Cultural Revolution
- Pampers created the first disposable nappy
- The Australian dollar was introduced
- John Lennon met Yoko Ono
- John Cusack, Mike Tyson, Nandor Tanczos, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales (cheers for the info, Jimmy) and UK Tory party leader David Cameron were born
- Barack Obama turned five
- The Sound of Music won the Academy Award for Best Picture
Whether all that seems like only yesterday, or it happened long before you were born, 42 years is a heck of a long time when you look at the pace of change in the world.
Today it’s hard to imagine a time when The Sound of Music could win an Oscar, the first personal computer was still nine years away, and one of the likely leaders of the western world was barely out of the womb (Cameron, not Tanczos … though you never can tell in politics).
In 2051, 42 years from now, will we look back at today with similar relief at how far we’ve come?
Climate scientists are urging developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions 80% to 95% below 1990 levels by 2050, in order to prevent global temperatures rising more than two degrees. (The calls for 25% to 40% cuts by 2020 are an interim goal.)
In 2051, we’ll have passed this end-zone that today’s climate change negotiations focus on. Whose future will we see?
The business leaders, inventors, designers, engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs who are re-thinking absolutely everything we build, make, buy and use?
The people of the world who, in just the past few years, are becoming environmentally aware on a scale—and with an urgency—never seen before?
Or the politicians, who don’t seem to believe that business, technology, culture or society will change in any meaningful way over the next four decades?
Reducing our emissions 90% by 2050 is going to require some massive changes, sure. But we’ve got time on our side. Technology is moving faster than ever—and it will move even faster with some decent political carrots, sticks and, well, any kind of leadership at all would be nice.
Looking at how the world changed over the past 42 years, don’t you think we should be aiming higher for the next?
