Choosing our Tomorrows

The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute has developed a film resource centred around the challenge of Climate Change but specifically addressing the idea that we have choices in the ways that we individually and collectively respond to this challenge.

The key message is that these choices will result in very different outcomes. To illustrate this we use the device of "video diaries" but based on the diaries of members of a farming family in the future Scotland of 2050. The diaries are collectively entitled: "Choosing our Tomorrows". 

This film resource has been used quite extensively and has been adopted as part of the resources for the Transition Towns initiative. However, we felt that the resource needed to be seen by a much wider range of people and also be used in a more interactive way. Accordingly, we have created a new, exciting interactive exhibit (installation) which will allow members of the public to view the diaries, interact with the information they provide and consider their own behaviours in relation to climate change. The eight foot spherical, interactive exhibit was unveiled on Wednesday, 24 February 2010 at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. Read more about the Climage Change Installation

This page will run a short broadband streamed trailer. In this, you see three visions of Scotland in 2050 seen through the video diaries of members of the same farming family. These voices from the future reflect the radically different choices society has made in response to climate change.

 

You can now click on any of the 'Play' buttons below to access the full-length (4-5 minute) video diaries.

Business as usual

Despite repeated high-profile warnings in the early half of the century, global responses to climate change have proved too little, too late.

In Scotland, summers are much warmer and are very dry. Winters are extremely wet. Violent storms are common. Many low lying areas are permanently flooded.

Living off the land

As a response to increased climate change and dwindling fossil fuels, electricity is now supplied by nuclear, and transport is mostly run on biofuels.

In the 2010’s, heavy investment in GM, agricultural engineering, and biotech research provided a way to use the available land to meet spiralling food and energy needs.

Most people now live in cities or towns which are powered by the resources provided from an industrialised countryside.

No place like home

Rural communities across Scotland have invested in new energy sources such as wind, solar, hydro, heat exchange pumps or tidal.

High transport fuel costs have favoured a move towards locally produced food, but have also constrained personal travel – leading to most people working remotely from home.

By acting early, the worldwide effects of climate change have been minimised.

 

Credits

 

Magazine article 100KB pdfs ( page 1 / page 2 ).