10 - Futures1

Summary

This chapter is a fictional exploration two possible futures. In one, a boy and his grandfather live in a cellar, hiding from devastating storms, polluted water, and social collapse. Society as we know it today has been destroyed by climate change, food plagues, and the failure of the fossil fuel economy. Standing trees, bread, and social services are for the grandfather a distant memory, and something his grandson has never known. The second scenario has a young girl living in the woods with her grandmother, an herbal healer. They too have experienced the breakdown of the old order, but while they live with a too hot sun and the residue of global pollution, their new culture is based in a profound appreciation for nature’s gifts, acceptance of human vulnerability and mortality, and the collective action that ended the follies of consumerism, reckless technological innovation, and contempt for nature.