The future we see

In our office we are, of course, enmeshed in the day-to-day; the courses and learners making their way through the transits of our bustling calendar. Yet we also dream of time ahead, of ideas for future classes, new directions for our department and for each other.

This week was the culmination of a contest we held here at Royal Roads asking our staff to answer a question for us: "What kind of future do you want?" 

The entries we received touched us and moved us, enlivening our office as we read them aloud to each other and lifting our sense of promise for the visions their words held up to us all.

The two top entries are posted below. The winning submission is from Bill Durodie from the School of Peace and Conflict Management. Our runner up is Rebecca Bosma from the Centre for Applied Leadership and Management. 

Congratulations, Bill and Rebecca! With futures this bright, we are honoured to share your sightlines of the days that lie before us all on this home we call Earth.

THE FUTURE WE NEED FOR OUR PLANET

Putting people back into the ecological equation

by Bill Durodie

The photographs of the earth taken from space by the moon missions of the late 60s became iconic images for the environmental movement. They captured the beauty of a predominantly blue planet, surrounded by a preciously thin and translucent layer of atmosphere. They inspired and galvanised a generation into demanding a more sustainable future.

It was ironic that this appreciation of our inner-connectedness had come through the greatest human effort to separate ourselves from our home and harness its resources. Worse, this new understanding was a by-product of the Cold War pursuit of power and presumed prestige.

And while at the time the images were held to demonstrate the uniqueness and fragility of our condition, further exploration since, primarily through the use of the Hubble space telescope, suggests this to be far from being true as new ‘earths’ are discovered almost every week.

We should never be afraid of such apparent contradictions if we are to embrace a clear vision for the future of our planet.

The historic moments that saw some people liberating themselves from the shackles of superstition, speculation, dogma and diktat – the Renaissance and the Enlightenment – were also periods that led to the colonization and domination of others.

But we should no more disown our own history than we can overturn the forces of nature. Rather we need to learn how to embrace and harness these for the benefit of both the planet and its people, all of whose histories intertwine to shape the future.

Unfortunately, in recent years, an all-too lazy caricature of human beings as being bad for the planet has been allowed to emerge and flourish across many quarters of society. Many effectively promote dystopian representations of the present and negative projections of the future that only serve to encourage a one-sided and dismal view of ourselves and our impact on the environment.

Maybe these pessimistic presumptions serve as a necessary corrective to an age that had supposedly unquestioningly embraced an unbridled pursuit of progress. But it may be time to re-establish ourselves in the wholeness of nature and not to allow ourselves to become dispirited as to our potential to conceptualise and to do good.

In his classic work ‘On Liberty’, the politician and philosopher John Stuart Mill – a practitioner-scholar ahead of his time – noted that;

‘a State which dwarfs its men … will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished’

The same could be said of any outlook that encourages us to be so humble that we fail thereby to challenge that which truly needs to be transformed. The only beneficiaries of a diminished sense of our humanity that ensues from this are those who gain from our failing to demand more and expect better.

A low view of ourselves does not help make things better for the planet. It merely demoralises and undermines the human potential and it caricatures the true complexity of our relationship with nature and with each other.

Small may be beautiful, but sometimes bigger can be better and more efficient. As we face big problems – such as climate change – so too will we need big ambitions, a big effort and maybe even big solutions to address it.

The future we need for our planet is one that restores the role of humanity in its future – not one that marginalises it. 

A KIND FUTURE

Maybe it really does begin with the chicken and the egg

by Rebecca Bosma

First off, thank you for asking! What kind of future do I want? I want a kind future. I want to live in a future that has all humans being kind to each other, to all animals and to our planet.

I want government that is influenced by a balance of values and common sense. I want to see them acting so ethical that the population wants to pay taxes. I want to see communities working together focused on common goals realized with more government support and less interference. I want to see closer knit communities, supporting each other’s needs. I would like to see food being appreciated and food security becoming a way of life.

I would like to see (in the near future) laws that not only allow, but encourage people to keep at least one hen for each member of the household. I believe this one thing could make a real difference to our planet. I would also like to see more households with one parent at home supporting healthy childhoods. If there is only one parent, they should be subsidized to allow all children one parent at home. If one person in each household could be devoted to raising and growing food full time, children could be nurtured with more quality time and better food (which changes everything).

There would be a program in place making it as easy as putting in a request to raise backyard chickens. Arrangements would be made for delivery of your chickens, a chicken tractor (small mobile pen and coop) and a handy how to guide. It would be important to have programs and resources to ensure a happy and healthy lifestyle is maintained for your chickens. What fun for the children, to collect the eggs and get to know their chickens and the value they have.

The backyard chicken program would allow families to benefit from fresh eggs, excellent entertainment, amazing compost for their gardens and possibly some meat to complete a cycle of sustainability. Local butchers would be better supported with common sense regulations so that families could afford to raise real organic, hormone free meat for their tables.

I can so easily visualize a government funded sustainability program like this for our future. It would make practical skills available through learning opportunities to help those who want to make the shifts towards sustainability. Some of the activities supported would be; food growing, seed saving, raising meat and dairy animals, making soap, various food preservation, etc. The program would have to ensure support is easily available for follow up assistance that anyone might need to move forward at all times to a more sustainable future. It needs to happen, but lots of people just don't know where to start. I believe that when people are able to do this kind of work, directly supporting their existence on this planet, that there will be more chance of our survival. 

I’d call this program something like “Step up and get your hands dirty for a better future” or “If we can’t do this, will our children even be able to?”

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What kind of future do you want? We'd love to read your comments.

Tess Wixted

Learning Associate

Visit us at cstudies.royalroads.ca.

Image credits:

Earth from Space via Wikimedia Commons

Seattle Chicken Coop with Enclosed run via Wikimedia Commons