In an effort to restructure the narrative about the global co-creative and political response to dangerous climate disruption, Eric Holthaus has published a vision for “what this decade could look like, if we do what we need to do.”

Holthaus’ 2030 vision starts out noting that:

Centuries of evidence have shown that storytelling can change the course of history. Radical imagination, a term used by US author and social movement organizer Adrienne Maree Brown, describes the power visionary fiction has to change the world. “Once the imagination is unshackled, liberation is limitless,” she writes.

Our story of the 2020s is yet to be written, but we can decide today whether or not it will be revolutionary. Radical imagination could help us begin to see that the power to change reality starts with changing what we consider to be possible.

The rapidly escalating emergency facing entire regions, due to accelerating climate breakdown is starting to outstrip political conventional wisdom. Australia’s tragic fires are one example. Another is the intersecting web of struggles facing farmers across the world.

Holthaus envisions a burst of political leadership, driven by overwhelming public demand that is generationally different from previous climate-related political pressure, citing Monbiot’s term “political rewilding” and predicting:

In 2021, a new president of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, the US, will pass a series of sweeping legislative changes to bring about a Green New Deal and help permanently decentralise political power from the extractive industries that have concentrated wealth for centuries.

The decentralization of technological prowess, power generation, financial leverage, and political force, is a critical component of the climate-smart transformation of human industry and market systems.

Read Holthaus’ whole essay at The Correspondent.