What do we mean by Living Futures?
Optimism is no-nonsense. Sound evidence, shared knowledge, and outcome-focused collaboration, liberate us to do the work of making the best possible world a reality. The best possible world is one in which the living systems of Earth are healthy, resilient, and continue to support optimal living conditions for humankind.
Our implicit collective mission, the basis for agriculture, civilization, and science, is to secure life-giving systems into the future. So, why do we struggle to achieve that?
Information access is at all-time highs, but information inequality is putting human rights and dignity—and democratic systems—at risk.
Disinformation threatens to block most people’s access to routine science-based understanding of reality, and that prevents best-case problem solving and makes all of us less secure.
Our industrial civilization is bursting through critical planetary boundaries, putting natural systems at risk, and undermining the viability of the very world we work every day to build.
The high-stakes projects of COVID recovery, climate resilience, and Nature-positive innovation, mean decisions of consequence will be made in this decisive decade that will affect the livability of our societies for generations to come.
As we wrote in the founding report on Principles for Reinventing Prosperity:
“Adaptive, inclusive, resilient prosperity is within reach, if we work to eliminate critical system failures.”
Living Futures will be a window onto the shifting sands, emerging ideas, and transformational tools we must use to reach that better way forward.
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About the Author
Joseph Robertson is:
Executive Director of Climate Civics International;
Chief strategist for the Climate Value Exchange;
A core partner in the Good Food Finance Network and the Climate Action and Food Systems Alliance (CAFSA.net);
Founder of Earthintel.org, Geodesiq, and The Navigator.
He formerly served as Senior Advisor, Sustainable Finance for the EAT Foundation, and was Interim Director for the start-up phase of the Food System Economics Commission. From May 2013 through December 2018, he published “The Note”—a monthly essay on sustainable economics and open civics. The Note now continues here as the Living Futures newsletter.
Our future will be shaped by the health of Nature.
The Living Futures newsletter logo has been updated to reflect a new commitment to treating the climate system as a geophysically integrated ethical fabric, which can define our future access to wellbeing and security.
The new logo integrates mountains with glaciers and snowpack with a compass and evokes global heating with the orange sky.
The mountains, snow, and sky, evoke the biosphere and its sensitivity to planetary change.
The compass points are a reminder that we need to make smart choices about our direction of travel, if we are to secure a livable future.
Climate Civics also updated its logo to evoke this sensitivity to the interconnections between mountain landscapes, water supplies, food systems, and the health of people and Nature. Visit ClimateCivics.org for a deeper exploration of these interconnections and what they will mean for our collective future.
