Future Vision
Dr Cathy Rogers and Madeleine Rogers
Button Books

Herein with 12 year-old Kit and friends as guides, children are transported to the year 2070, to a world that has been transformed by sustainability, technology and global collaboration. A world wherein as the author says in her introduction, it’s hoped that ‘most countries have come together to solve some of the most pressing problems.’ A world with less poverty, better health, a greener and cleaner world with more kindness and happiness. Who wouldn’t wish that could be so?

Factors that contributed to the changes include no petrol and diesel cars, affordable public transport everywhere powered by the extremely cheap electricity and otherwise almost traffic-free cities. There’s been a great deal of re-wilding, meaning that people are able to enjoy the beauties of a thriving natural world.
Homes too are eco-friendly with plenty of house plants, bots to assist with, or carry out, many household chores – imagine having a homebot to collect up all your dirty clothes for washing and then once clean, return them to the appropriate cupboard.

And of course all energy used at home or elsewhere is clean, green energy.

Health and Wellbeing, is an important topic. On the journey, it’s evident that life has improved for all and people usually live long, healthy lives until one hundred or thereabouts. How this has been achieved is discussed; so too is the interconnectedness of health and happiness.

Other topics presented are oceans, food and nutrition, space and democracy. The author feels strongly that optimism about the future, not only about people’s own lives, but about the world as a whole is important and she talks of ‘realistic optimism’. Finally she invites readers to think about their own vision of the future. This is where I see that the imagination is vital, for no scientific discoveries could have been made without the power of the imagination. Who would have expected forty years ago what could be done with a hand-held mobile phone for instance, but it all began with somebody’s creative thought.