Between a future of “whole earth” harmony with other species in our ecosystem, or humans as a separate species living off the rest of the planet, the expectation is pretty negative. At best, only one fifth of the respondents think we can make some slow progress towards harmony. And over half think human nature and our divisive nature will prevent progress.
Slow, Small Steps
Here we talk about a positive view of the future, but slowly and gradually, a step at a time.
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It is 2043 – in the previous 20 years, the world has endured major climate and economic disruption. Several major economies managed to retool to a renewable energy sourced economy, changing their governance, education, and civil society in the process. At the same time they and the entire world were enduring major catastrophic events and periods (severe drought, weather disasters, coastal erosion, climate migration, regional wars due to climate disruption) such that steady efforts to keep global warming below 2 degrees C were often difficult to keep on course. In any case decades of governance and policy models based on pre climate crisis were often ineffective. Some cultures began to develop a better understanding of natural systems and how humans were a part of, not dominators, of those systems. United States
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I don’t think in 20 years we will hit harmony, but things will shift in that direction, by quite a bit. United States
Oneness and the belief that we are all one could be an extra ordinary opportunity for humans to become a “whole earth” society – if we don’t believe that, we will learn it the hard way. Germany
I see many examples of people understanding the whole earth philosophy even my philistine brothers. Feeling positive on this one. Australia
In 20 years, I hope there will be a move to a “whole earth” philosophy. It didn’t get very far in the 1960s but is a different world now, so it is a possibility. It will take more than one generation though. Belgium
This is what we need but getting there is a very long road. United States
We will obviously see a time with leaders such as Trump, Putin, Jinping and Erdogan which will increase fascism thinking. This will lead us to war and destroy societies for a period. Eventually it will hit back again to desire for a whole earth harmony. But it will take longer time to get there. Sweden
We will go through more pain before this. Utopia is always in the future. India
As much as I advocate for a “whole earth”, I don’t see it happening in the next 20 years. United States
Holding Us Back
These somewhat more pessimistic comments suggest the “we humans” are too important to change. It’s not only human nature, but a self-centered view of humanity, along with conflictual divisions in human society.
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We are slow. And still think we can use the earth without thinking of it as a whole. We are looking out to the stars to continue our locus behavior. Netherlands
Humans are ultimately greedy and selfish and destructive. It seems this is in our natures. I think people will continue to pretend climate change is for the next generation or will expect big business and government to provide technology-based solutions so that people can continue to live an unchanged life. Meanwhile we will deplete natural food stocks, so in long term there will be less food and with more and more extreme weather with famines and mass extinctions. Humans are very stupid. United Kingdom
Since we only have got 7 years left to act dramatically on climate change, I suspect we won’t have an ecosystem to adapt to at that point in time. It’ll only be a small few trying to survive in a world that’ll become hostile and inhabitable for anything we now know as ‘living’. European Union
In DNA we are selfish. China
We need a whole earth view, but our DNA is not programmed for that. Australia
Humans are still individualistic and will remain so. United States
Unfortunately, we will continue to have a very anthropocentric view of life on the planet. India
Same as before – people are people, humans are humans!! South Africa
Humans are selfish and will only want more. India
People will remain people, though balance will have to be found. France
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I don’t think this is going to happen realistically. India
I doubt we will have this level of harmony in 20 years. Australia
We are so not there yet. Nor will be in 20 years. Sorry. Canada
Humans in general will have a hard time changing their “top of the food chain” thinking in 20 years. United States
Humans have been, and always will be the superior race. We are consumers of the other species, that will never change. United Kingdom
Not in the long term, as people become wealthier they are consuming more meat and other animals. Ireland
Yes will still see humans live separately with species and humans will keep hunting species for food because of hunger. Rwanda
Quoting Star Trek “only human arrogance would assume the message must be meant for man”. I don’t see humanity overall giving up its alleged power over the rest of life on earth. Austria
We are beyond redemption. India
I think the superiority feeling of human beings cannot change in the next 20 years. Netherlands
Unfortunately, the more we have a grip on tech (or tech has a grip on us) the more we will continue considering our species as different (and superior) to others. Belgium
I can’t see the priority of humans softening. United Kingdom
Sadly, man may always consider itself the superior species and demand it receive what it needs to survive first. Canada
Humans will probably live off the rest of the planet. India
Doubt that we will give up the idea of us people being superior. Switzerland
I think humans will always see themselves as the priority and while there will be more consideration towards the globe, animals – there will never be a time where we value the life of an animal at the as the same value as a human. Australia
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We can’t align within our species, so hard to do with other species. Singapore
We are of different origins, race, norms and values, so yes; there will always be that differences that separate us. Nigeria
Still there will be factions and different ecosystems harbouring different groups of communities and ethnic groups. Hong Kong
By 2043, we’ll still be in silos fighting each other. United States
Whole earth? Even the humans are divided. China North Korea Iran and Russia as an alternate axis. And we’re talking harmony. Hmmm. Canada
Some will see it one way and others the other way. United States
While there are discussions of whole earth and of living in alignment with the planet, the majority of powerful nations at present seem more intent than ever on using scarce resources to build things to sell to others. I do not see how this can be reversed in the next 40 years. United Kingdom
Over the past couple of centuries, we have created separation between humans and the environment that is all around us (some of the best papers on this came out in the early 1990s from the likes of Gladwin, Srivastava and Co.). Generational change may occur through improved education and people seeing the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss in real-time, but we are trying to shift worldviews amongst 8 billion people that have progressively been built over decades and reinforced over the last 50 years through the primacy of the organization and individual wealth. Australia
Moving Towards a Whole Earth Perspective
We will improve our whole earth perspective moving into the future, but only because we’re forced to. Some of these comments, though, offer positive suggestions.
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We are going to live more in harmony with nature and with each other. It may still take disasters to make this happen. But we ultimately cause these disasters ourselves. But people will become more aware and make different choices as a result. Then we can save the earth and live together in a fair society – worldwide. Netherlands
By 2043 we should have experienced plenty of dramatic climate change impacts. I would expect those to lead to a stronger appreciation of the ecosystem ‘earth’ and hence a search for more harmony with a planet we destroyed. United States
Unless a major cataclysm, involving us to start from scratch (for those who survived), I don’t see humans having a “whole earth” philosophy. Since ages, we have demonstrated our difference with other species even if it is not the case in some culture (unfortunately disappearing) and today, more and more people tend to go in that direction. But all the issues of our world prevent us from changing profoundly. France
Some crisis will force us to change our thinking, but without a fair share of wealth and resources we will still have great differences in how we treat our planet. Netherlands
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One of the ways we will be able to thrive will be developing a custodianship model for all our lands and oceans. It is one thing to believe that, but it is a wholly different thing if governments can align the way they work to ensure our world is protected from the micro level upwards. United Kingdom
As long as leaders and citizens take long term stewardship of the environment into consideration. Nigeria
It’s possible and advanced AI drives a move towards a new ‘religion/ philosophy’ which moves us in this direction. Netherlands
Whole earth philosophy will be one of the keys to sustain life on earth. We will draw a lot of inspiration from the way other species live and we will adapt ours progressively. United Arab Emirates
Not in 20 years imo. It’s possible within 20 years we could have a significant minority of people (enough that they could be showing how it could be done) living in harmony with other species but people will be people. That said. here is my caveat. if we have 80% technological unemployment and the entire economy turns upside down (think maybe they all shift to a cottage industry – some manufacturing and most small-scale agriculture) then it is possible that ‘harmony’ could be embedded in a new way of doing things. United States
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As a tai chi chuan practitioner I hope so. But I’m not sure where the journey gets us. Germany
Hard to imagine how it will work but I hope we will find a path to a sustainable planet. United States
I would like to think we are pushing to harmony but there really is a long way to go. People are now more aware of our impact on the broader ecosystem. Australia
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The clash between man and nature has reached an inflexion point. Like climate change, how man learns to co-exist with nature will be a defining theme for the future. India
Will have to respect more the overall planet if we want to survive. this will become a last call very soon. France
Our model since the Enlightenment had been one of separation. To progress, to evolve, to survive we need to shift. But we’re running out of time. United Kingdom
This is the future – and hopefully more and more people will realize the need to have belonging to the whole planet. India
I’m a worried optimist. United Kingdom
