The Future Is Now A 2040 STUDY GUIDE
Climate change is perhaps the most serious crisis human beings have ever faced. Human-caused global warming is already upon us, and it has contributed to increased temperatures; extreme weather events, such as massive storms, unprecedented drought, flooding and wildfires; melting ice; rising seas; the warming and acidification of oceans; and animal extinction.1 Scientists predict that, within the lifetimes of young people today, planetary catastrophes may devastate food production, create unliveable temperatures in many regions, submerge cities and create hundreds of millions of refugees.2 If left unchecked, climate change has apocalyptic consequences not only for human beings but for all life on Earth.3
Climate change is not simply a scientific or technological issue; it has tremendous ethical, social, political and cultural dimensions. The undeniable reality is that climate change poses a particular threat to people who are already subjected to extreme poverty and political instability. As scholar Rob Nixon argues, the ongoing climate and environmental crises constitute a form of ‘slow violence’ that has so far primarily affected poor communities in the global South.4 We have a moral responsibility to empathise with and support – rather than demonise or build walls to keep out – those most affected by climate change.
The topic of climate change is of utmost importance to today’s youth, who will, along with their children and grandchildren, inherit this planet from their elders. Many contemporary young people have developed a sense of hopelessness or pessimism in the face of climate catastrophe. Yet there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful and even optimistic. Recent waves of political and social action, from Extinction Rebellion to the youth-led School Strike 4 Climate, have shifted the global public conversation around the immediate need for action. Activists driving such movements are communicating humanity’s collective
