Our Vision for a Great Transition
Climate change. Global poverty. Environmental devastation. These are haunting words. And they are accompanied by haunting images. Africa’s population will double by 2050 as our planet’s population rockets towards its high point, some 9.2 billion people. The next forty years will bring increased heat, scarcer water supplies, and desertification. They might also bring large-scale drought and agricultural failure. This transition is hard to imagine on a human scale. Will this new generation flood into crowded mega-cities like the Joads of The Grapes of Wrath? Or will they try against all odds to eke out a living among dark clouds of dust?
These sorts of jeremiads invoke instinct on our part- surprise, sadness, fear, surprise, and maybe even guilt. But what do we think next? We make these issues into problems that require solutions. We consider what the obstacles might be- fossil fuels, bad government, capitalism, whatever- and how we might overcome them. But this sort of thinking is misguided. We must focus on positive possibilities, not deficits, if we are to make a difference. We must consider not only root causes, but also how we can create and continue sustainable abundance.
So let’s try again. The coming years won’t be an easy transition. But they also present our best chance yet to reinvent a sustainable global society. These challenges gives us pause and possibility to create an extraordinary future- one in which an emerging planetary civilization can embrace, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, the better angels of our nature.
How might we realize this sort transition? We must first recognize and use the immense abundance we already possess- in wealth, talent, and knowledge- to design our future. Evolving Heroes wants to spark personal to planetary transformation by doing just that. Let's contrast images of challenge with that of possibility: of an employment system that prioritizes compassion and global reform in addition to material wealth; of an educational system that breeds dreamers with a pragmatic twist; and of a society in which financial and human resources are available to all, and not just the lucky few.
