At this time of the year it’s customary to look ahead at the new year and guess what’s going to happen. At a personal level, I can confidently predict that my three grandchildren will all be one year older at the end of the year. But that got me thinking, as many of us do, about the quality of lives of our upcoming generations many new years out.
I recall back in 2000, Business in Vancouver did a special publication called Business Leaders of the Century, featuring a cover picture of the Lions Gate Bridge under construction, suspended over the First Narrows with a big gap still looming between the bridge decks.
Architect Arthur Erickson liked to tell the story of his father fishing with his pals at the mouth of the Capilano River, looking up at that bridge and saying: “What are they thinking? How will they ever get enough people to live on the North Shore for that bridge to make sense?”
Now we look back at those fishermen and say, “What were they thinking? How could they not see that the North Shore would become one of the most desirable places to live in the world?”
So let’s imagine what my grandchildren will be asking each other when they look back on our time 50 years from now.
Did they really think real estate prices in Vancouver would go down?
Did they really believe that we could fit 700,000 additional vehicles into the Lower Mainland?
Did they really believe in privacy?
Did they really have no idea that all that big data they were hooking up to would come together to control their lives?
Did they really not realize that staring at screens was a harmful addiction?
Can you believe they trusted humans to drive vehicles, planes, trains, warships and jet aircraft?
How could they not have understood the environmental impacts of flying?
Did they really believe humans would be needed to do all the jobs that were taken over by robots and computers and artificial intelligence?
Did they really think there would ever be full employment again?
Did they really think that the solution to growing inequality was to put a group of billionaires in charge?
Did they really trust corporations that gained supremacy over our data to act in our best interests?
Did they really think that shrinking government and promoting self-interest was the best way to protect us?
Did they really think it was more important to get a good price for the last cod than to save it?
Did they think they could exterminate thousands of species without paying a price?
Did they really believe that printing money would wipe out their massive debts?
Did they not notice how many wars were the result of too many people fighting over dwindling resources?
Did they really think the human species was immune from the natural laws of population explosion and collapse that apply to all other species?
Imagine thinking that having four kids was OK!
Did they actually think the earth’s resources were unlimited?
Did some people seriously believe that colonizing space was an answer to anything?
How could any country have elected a leader who thought climate change was a hoax?
Did they really heat outdoor patios in winter with petroleum products?
Did they not realize what would happen when the oceans got too acidic to support food from the sea?
Did they really think they could stop the flow of climate refugees across so-called protected borders?
Did they not realize that losing the soil was losing their ability to feed themselves?
Did they really think it was OK to keep eating animal products in a time of food shortages?
Did some people really believe that having a big enough gate or army or income would protect them from the floods, fires and storms set off by climate change?
Is this really the future they wanted for us? •
Peter Ladner ([email protected]) is a co-founder of Business in Vancouver. He is a former Vancouver city councillor and former fellow at the SFU Centre for Dialogue. He is the author of The Urban Food Revolution
