IMAGINE OUR FUTURE
We are inviting artists and writers of all ages in our community to help us answer the question:
What does a positive, sustainable future look like?
Fiction
by Hilda Rosselli
Music
Art
Monmouth Pedestrian Plaza
by Stephen Howard
More from 2023
Poetry
Fiction
by Gail Oberst
A June 2042 Stroll Through Independence, Oregon
by Bill Henley
by Benjamin Gorman
by Stephen Howard
Pick a point in the near future (10-30 years from now). Imagine that we have stopped making global warming worse. We have found ways to thrive that do not use up natural resources needed for future generations, and that preserve clean air, water, and habitat for ourselves and all the world's inhabitants. We still have to deal with global warming we already caused; we still have work to repair problems from the past, but we're moving in the right direction.
There was no magic cure-all technology that pulled us out of the climate crisis. We don't now have access to some perfect, unlimited source of energy. We had to make changes to how we live, and how we do the things we need and want to do.
And yet, this is not a story of sacrifice. People generally have the things they need. Technologies old and new continue to play a role in how we live day to day. People lead fulfilling lives. They have community, and look out for each other.
In this imagined future, what is different about how we now live our lives? What had to change? Create a piece of writing or visual art that tells us a local story in this positive future. Give us a window, a glimpse, into what life is like.
THEMES
We are looking to showcase works that highlight the following ideas. Click on each for some examples to spark your imagination:
Smart Energy Use
Demonstrating Convenient, lower-energy solutions to every-day problems
Sufficiency
More isn't always better. Enough can be plenty.
Make Waste Valuable
The end of one thing is the beginning of another. There is no throwing "away" on a finite planet
Cooling the City
Countering the urban heat island effect with plants and better design.
Repair and Reuse
Things that last through care and repair.
Better Buildings
Buildings that are healthy, comfortable, and that minimize how much energy they use.
Prepared for Extremes
There's a lot left to fix, but we've found ways to take care of each other through the worst of it.
Local Food
Adapting to the seasons, saving energy, and strengthening local resilience
Appropriate Transportation
Finding reliable, low-impact ways to travel a little or a lot
Renewable Energy
Powering our lives with minimum impact on the world we depend on
Improving the Soil
Nurturing the ecosystems in our soils to enhance the things we grow in them.
Stronger Community
Working together and looking out for each other, no matter what life has thrown at us.
Water Wise
Making the most of how we use, and re-use, water.
PROMPTS
Need a spark to get started? Try one of these:
Imagine a new building is being built in part of the city. What is the building for? Who works or lives there, and what do they do? What does it look like and how might it work differently than the buildings that exist today?
Imagine a new kind of job, or an uncommon job, that would support a sustainable future. How does that job work? What do people with that job like about it? Who do they help?
Imagine how neighborhoods might be designed differently in a sustainable future. How might that change how the people who live there spend time with each other?
Imagine a new business or nonprofit that supports a sustainable future. How does it make people’s lives better?
Imagine how education might be different in a sustainable future. What new knowledge and skills would we need to learn? How would the places where we learn and the way we learn change?
Libraries are how we share books and movies today. Imagine what else we might share in a sustainable future. How would that sharing work?
Imagine something that people in a sustainable future would take for granted. What work has to be maintained so that they can continue taking it for granted?
Imagine what might be easier in a sustainable future. What is more affordable? What is a worry that people live with day to day now that has been made better?