''The Compassion for the Future'' project (2019 to 4019)

There's an interesting and futuristic project that I've heard about called Compassion for the Future, and while it's still in its infancy stages without any published material yet, it might capture your attention as it did mine.

The CFF project calls for and advocates the creation and publication of guides, manuals, encyclopedias and other materials (videos or internet blogs) designed to be read not by people living today, but by people living in the last days of humankind 20 to 30 generations from now that might help them and their loved ones prepare for and learn how accept and cope with the end days of human civillzation due to the severe impact events of runaway climate change in 500 years or so.

It's a futuristic project and it has nothing to do with today, so no need to worry now.

The CFF project, as it stands now, doesn't offer anything for most people to chew on since entire climate activist community and the climate scientists and philosophers who work in tandem with them worldwide want political leadership and political solutions  technological and geo-engineering fixes that can save humanity from climate change impact events before it's too late. That's the rational and logical road to take.

And we need to be listening to people like Katharine Hayhoe, Eric Holthaus, Nathaniel Rich, David Wallace-Wells, Michael Mann, Andy Revkin and Kate Marvel. All climate activists and climate scientists seek solutions and fixes and messages based on hope and optimism to realize their dream of stopping runaway global warming before it is too late. They think they have the answers, or that with time the answers and solutions and fixes will come and they therefore contiinue advocating for positive, optimistic messaging to the public. And that's important.

The public? That's you and me.

Yes, there was one scientist way back in 2006, in Britain, James Lovelock, who spoke quietly of something very similiar to the CFF project, where he called for people in the present to write guides and manuals for people in the distant future, just in case.


["Before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable," warns Lovelock in the Independent newspaper.
 
 
[He's still hopeful that the last ten thousand years of civilisation's sustained flowering have not been in vain. As well as "powering down" western civilisation and learning to live on more meagre rations than those to which we have grown accustomed, we should do what we can to preserve our knowledge for future generations, he says.]

[To do this, all the world's accumulated scientific knowledge should be stored away on special, long-lasting print and paper.]

[It is an idea that evokes another classic science fiction tale, George R Stewart's Earth Abides, in which humankind is indeed reduced to a few motley pockets of blinking survivors. The hero - a former geologist, as it happens - tries in vain to preserve the civil traditions and sustain some semblance of scientific progress.]

Of course, nobody in the UK or Europe or North America took Lovelock seriously and now at the age of 97, people still don't take his ideas seriously. But I do. I think he was onto something important, and I think the CFF project, if it ever comes to fruition could contribute something useful to humankind. 

Who might be involved? Well, for example, writers, poets, artists, academics, scholars, psychologists, anthropologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, futurists, science fiction experts, journalists, editors, a whole bunch of people from all walks of life.

It might generate manifestos and diary entries geared for readers in the distant future, say 30 generations from now, some 500 years from now.

And the point would be to show compassion for future generations worldwide, our descendants, so that they can better accept and adjust to what might be happening to them and their world and their environment as catastrophic runaway climate change impact events possibly get closer and closer to them.

Then again, that kind of future might never come to pass, if we can stop climate change now or in the next 100 years. God knows, we're trying.

Greta Thunberg in Sweden has been leading the way in Poland and at Davos.

Me, I'm just a cheerleader for the CFF project, but others more expert than me in seeing into the future will take charge and I am actively looking for them now.

Their work will be like a generation ship except that this generation ship will not be in outer space in some sci-fi novel or movie but right here on Earth with real people doing real work to create these CFF materials.

The more I think about this, I think it's just a science fiction pipedream.

But who knows, maybe the CFF project could serve a purpose for future generations. It might even prove to be a new way to have real hope for the future and carry on fighting for climate justice worldwide, and not just for the rich and famous jetting into Davos in their 1,500 private jets to hobnob with the rest of the rich and famous.

Let's see what happens next. There's still a lot of time.

SEE ALSO JAMES LOVELOCK FILES from 2007

"Before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable," warns Lovelock in today's Independent newspaper.


He's a sweet old man, Lovelock. [At 98], he is still hopeful that the last ten thousand years of civilisation's sustained flowering have not been in vain. As well as "powering down" western civilisation and learning to live on more meagre rations than those to which we have grown accustomed, we should do what we can to preserve our knowledge for future generations, he says.
To do this, all the world's accumulated scientific knowledge should be stored away on special, long-lasting print and paper.
It is an idea that evokes another classic science fiction tale, George R Stewart's Earth Abides, in which humankind is indeed reduced to a few motley pockets of blinking survivors. The hero - a former geologist, as it happens - tries in vain to preserve the civil traditions and sustain some semblance of scientific progress.

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SEE ALSO ''Lovelock's apocaphilia ''

Gaia theorist says we’re all doomed

By David Roberts on Jan 18, 2006

 

So, James Lovelock — he of the famous "Gaia Hypothesis" — has a rather, uh, grim piece in the Independent today, mainly as advance hype for his new book The Revenge of Gaia.

(The paper also has a follow-up piece that does little but point out the existence of the original piece. Oh, and another follow-up piece, doing the same. And, um, another follow-up piece, in case you missed the first three.)

I’m not really clear on what Lovelock thinks he’s trying to accomplish. Does he think people aren’t more concerned about global warming because environmentalists haven’t yelled loud enough?

Haven’t been apocalyptic enough? Haven’t painted a vivid enough picture of the end of civilization?

Does he think becoming even more melodramatic — "before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic" — is going to snap people awake?

I’m mystified by this attitude, which seems to be widely shared. Just shouting, louder and louder and louder, isn’t going to do anything. Lovelock’s latest piece is not going to reach anybody who’s not already sympathetic.

Public opinion polls show that the majority of people believe in global warming and believe it’s human-caused and believe it’s a threat. What are they supposed to do? Panic?

They need to see pathways, from where we’re standing now to a place where it will be OK. Lovelock offers no such pathways.

This kind of street-corner "the end is nigh" stuff has, in my humble opinion, largely exhausted its usefulness.

Here are some of the points:

I have to tell you, as members of the Earth’s family and an intimate part of it, that you and especially civilisation are in grave danger.
…
We are in a fool’s climate, accidentally kept cool by smoke, and before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.
…
So what should we do? First, we have to keep in mind the awesome pace of change and realise how little time is left to act; and then each community and nation must find the best use of the resources they have to sustain civilisation for as long as they can. Civilisation is energy-intensive and we cannot turn it off without crashing, so we need the security of a powered descent.
…
… the notion that there is land to spare to grow biofuels, or be the site of wind farms, is ludicrous. We will do our best to survive, but sadly I cannot see the United States or the emerging economies of China and India cutting back in time, and they are the main source of emissions. The worst will happen and survivors will have to adapt to a hell of a climate.
…
So let us be brave and cease thinking of human needs and rights alone, and see that we have harmed the living Earth and need to make our peace with Gaia. We must do it while we are still strong enough to negotiate, and not a broken rabble led by brutal war lords.