The future is not only about tomorrow, but very much about today. Choices we make today influence what our lives will be like in the future. Vice versa, the ways we think about the future today, the ways in which we envision it, also influences the way we look at our choices for tomorrow. The bottom line of all this: start today.
Our long-term thinking friends over at worldchanging.com (also check out their manifesto) have published a fascinating book, titled: “Worldchanging: A Users Guide for the 21st Century”. As their website describes it, the book is “a groundbreaking compendium of the most innovative solutions, ideas and inventions emerging today for building a sustainable, livable, prosperous future.” It features a plethora of articles bundled together under seven headings:

1. stuff: about the things we make, buy, use and live with. articles include entries about green design, biomimicry, sustainable food, clothing, trade and technology etc.
2. shelter: about building future-friendly homes. articles deal with themes such as green building and landscaping, clean energy, water, disaster relief and humanitarian design
3. cities: about living green by living urban. the chapter informs about developments in terms of smart growth, sustainable communities, transportation, greening infrastructure, product-service systems, leapfrogging and megacity challenges
4. community: about working together for the common good. think: education, women’s rights, public health, holistic approaches to community development, South-South science, social entrepreneurship and micro-lending, and philanthropy
5. business: about growing sustainable prosperity. articles deal with themes such as socially responsible investment, worldchanging start-ups, ecological economics, corporate social responsibility and green business
6. politics: about progressing toward a free and fair world. the chapter explores developments in networked politics, new media, transparency, human rights, non-violent revolution and peacemaking
7. planet: about restoring and exploring the earth. this final chapter is about the big picture, about everything from placing oneself in a bioregion to climate foresight to environmental history to green space exploration

More information can be found on the book’s website (or click here to hit the bookshop right away).

Related posts:

1. 22nd century
2. book: the extreme future
3. book: supercrunchers

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 16:22 and is filed under publication, sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.