By Rick Zwaan

What will the future be like? It’s a question often asked but rarely answered. All we can say for certain is that it will be vastly different from today. Not a very profound thought I know, but it is important to keep in mind when we think about challenges like climate change. It is easy to be pessimistic when we look at the huge problems we face and say that nothing can be done to prevent it. It’s easy to sit back and say there’s no point because of all the emissions that China creates through coal plants which can’t be stopped. People like to say that it would be impossible to build a good public transport system throughout NZ because it will cost too much and the country is too vast.

Sure it would cost a lot and our country is relatively spread out. But the point is that we can’t solve problems by seeing the other problems associated with them. Our thinking must be solution based. Money is no excuse. Before World War 2 do you think both sides thought they could afford to build all the planes they did? Someone in 1950 probably didn’t think they would see anyone on the moon in their lifetimes. The biggest contributors to climate change in the world are transport and electricity production. Together these account for about 44 percent of New Zealand’s green house gas emissions. Transport is driven by oil, which as is evident in the Gulf of Mexico, is a disastrously dirty fuel. The main source of electricity production around the world is coal, another very dirty fuel.

So if we are to prevent catastrophic climate change we need to change our energy sources, fast. Oil is still relatively cheap, we all use it every day and it seems a logical source to keep using. In our current state of mind it seems impossible to replace such a useful fuel. This is what oil companies want us to think. The truth is that oil is a finite resource that has reached the peak in terms of supply. So we need to find another miracle fuel source. We need to change our mindset. Why can’t we have cars that improve the atmosphere? Why can’t we have electricity that comes from a water purifying plant? The answer to both is that we don’t think it’s possible for such things to exist. As soon as we change that mindset many of the world’s problems will be solved.

Many people around the world are already thinking this way and have done for decades now. Biomimicry shows promise of great design solutions. The ‘cradle to cradle’ concept is already being taken up by industries around the world. It’s proving more profitable to design products sustainably than to not. Investment in clean energy is much more intelligent than dirty coal. So why are we still adamant on building more roads and mining more coal? It’s because there is no politically agreed clear vision for the future. The time for short term economic growth is over. We must start thinking past a 3 year term to a 30 to 300 year plan. If we don’t, people my age will suffer, and generations to come. The future will be bright if we chose to see it in that light.