There's tons of bleak, dystopian science fiction about our terrible near future — so instead, author Jonathon Porritt decided to write an upbeat novel about how we dragged the world back from the edge of disaster. Check out a book trailer that's also an uplifting documentary from 2050.
Porritt is the author of The World We Made: Alex McKay's Story from 2050, which takes place in a world where 90 percent of power comes from renewable sources, and human brilliance has reinvented agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and the lives of cities. In Porritt's upbeat world, Detroit becomes the Green City of the 2020s, and China increases tree-planting programs so much that it creates the "Great Green Wall of China," covering 300 trillion square miles.
The World We Made narrates all this change from the point of view of Alex, a gender-neutral protagonist living in the idyllic world of 2050. And Porritt teamed up with designers and illustrators to create beautiful illustrations and infographics, detailing this better tomorrow.
Porritt tells Motherboard:
Some people have always been more drawn to dystopian visions of the future... The reality is that there are good reasons to be quite gloomy about our future prospects—climate change is quite simply the biggest threat that mankind has ever faced. But rubbing people’s noses in the apocalypse isn’t likely to get them more involved—it just leaves them feeling crushed and disempowered.
Check out some images of the utopian 2050 below:
New-style manufacturing at the Sahara Forest Project in Qatar.
Bulk shipping carrier with solar panels and sky sail.
New Petronas Tower, Malaysia
Detroit named Green City of the 2020s.
Great Green Wall of China
Boeings C2050 concept plane, launched in 2028.
[via Fast Co Create and Motherboard]