Headlines from the year 2020

Here's a fun exercise that a group of architects, designers, and others completed today as part of the Designing for a Living World symposium that I'm attending, hosted by Interface at Shelburne Farms in Vermont. It's a little thing I call... "Headlines from the Future."

Here's the deal. Take these ten topics:

1. Oceans
2. Agriculture
3. Energy
4. Poverty
5. Terror
6. Climate
7. Water
8. Health
9. Cities
10. Geopolitics

Write a headline for each of those ten topics. Take about 10 minutes to do this.

If possible, do this in a group. A group from school, from work, your family, friends, you name it. Share what you come up with. Discuss.

I'll give some examples in a sec.

But first... here are some discussion questions once you've written your headlines. Do that now if you can!

Are your headlines optimistic, pessimistic, realistic, something else? What does that say about you? What does that say about your hopes and fears? What does it say about where you are steering yourself? To paraphrase Paul Hawken, who led our discussion, which future are you designing for?

How many things did you imagine as being 12 years out that might be only 2–3 years out, or may already be true? Do we have as much time as you imagine?

Are there negative outcomes that become positive because they spur changes in our behavior? How do you see that taking place?

How much do you think we can predict the future? Are there things that may happen that we haven't even imagined? Do you have an adequate sense of your own ignorance?

Here are some favorite headlines that our group wrote in our exercise today:

• Dubai Sells $1 Trillion in Petroleum Development Rights to Carbon Conservancy
• Kyoto Underwater; Kyoto Protocol Targets Met by All Developed Nations
• Eat Local, Says FDA; Closes Doors
• Free Higher Ed for Children of Poverty Created UN Leaders
• Global Ceasefire Reached for 2020 Tehrain Olympics
• Reduced Oil Dependency Root Driver in Lower Terror
• Former Terror Groups Protest Environmental Degradation
• No More Insurance for Weather-Related Claims
• Florida Blizzards; Malaria in Michigan
• Cost of Tap Water Tops Oil
• L.A. Mass Transit Works
• Infrastructure Failure Rampant
• U.S. Stripped of Security Council Veto Power
• Carbon Tax Filing Deadline Approaching April 15th
• Benyus-Hawken Ticket Wins Popular Vote

What are yours?