They released four animated videos about different possible futures.
A tour of the site shows the group to be mainly about climate change and green issues. Their remit seems to be about "helping" businesses achieve social and environmental sustainability.
As a believer in a free market economy, and a non-believer in the myth of climate change, I don't subscribe to the views of this group or the direction they would like people to take.
I didn't say anything about the video releases at first but others did and they seem to have provoked a response.
The Forum For The Future website now has this statement, intended to clear up any confusion that may have been caused by the videos:
We’d like to respond to some comment on the web, which appears to misunderstand the purpose of our Megacities on the move scenarios.
When Forum for the Future develops scenarios they aren’t predictions or depictions of desirable futures that we wish to promote, and they don’t represent our vision of a sustainable future. They are pictures of different possible futures, designed to help people understand the major trends that are shaping our world. They aim to challenge, inspire and excite, so that people feel motivated to plan for a better, more sustainable future.
The scenarios in Megacities on the move form part of a toolkit, which aims to help governments, companies and civil society organisations understand the challenges of living and travelling in the cities of the future and start planning sustainable solutions. We recommend you watch more than one to get a sense of how the future may play out in very different ways
So they are not a vision of how the Forum would like the future to progress, they are vision of a possible future, designed to help us plan ahead.
Taken in that context, let's take a look at the videos:
Video one. Planned-Opolis.
Megacities on the move - Planned-opolis from Forum for the Future on Vimeo.
Point 1) "Have you got your calorie card open on your smart phone?"
Did you spot that? Also the headline in one of the papers shown at the beginning mentions the "Global Food Council".
The Forum is a group looking for ways to create a sustainable future. The foresee a future where food is scarce, and has to be strictly controlled.
It is highly possible that food may be scarce in the future. One possible answer would be to turn to genetically modified foods, however, green groups such as this one are the biggest opposition to GM foods.
From the forum website:
In summary, GM might have a role to play in securing a more sustainable food production system in the future…
…but, it’s definitely not a ‘silver-bullet’ solution to world hunger, climate change and poverty.
Right now, our priorities should be reducing waste in the food chain, eating a less meat-intensive diet, and ensuring our production systems are energy and resource efficient and non-polluting, as well as overall poverty reduction measures to increase access to food.
They tend to admit GM food has potential and then dismiss it. They also have a big problem with GM foods being controlled by large corporations.
I would suggest the priority should be developing the GM technology, and that the large corporations are the very people with the resources and ability to do that.
Reducing meat consumption is something often banded about by the global warmists as a way to help tackle climate change. Even if climate change were man made, this hypothesis is very flawed.
Point 2) "We're all trying to meet our global carbon deal".
I'm sure we can agree that the myth of manmade global warming has been fully de-bunked by now. There are even cracks showing in the community of world leaders and scientists that rely on AGM for their incomes.
If in the future, we do have a global carbon deal, it will only be through the tireless efforts of these misguided green groups, playing into the hands of the powers who want to promote the AGW agenda for their own reasons.
It will mean we are living worse lives than we are now as we abandon cars, meat etc, all to line the pockets of the (world, apparently) government.
I'm sure when the Forum imagines this future, they don't imagine themselves as having caused it unnecessarily.
Point 3) "The Cry Freedom Ghettos"
"They are safe from climate change in the floating city". We are all safe from climate change. It's Al Gore and his cronies that we need protection from.
If this is the Forums vision of a possible future, who do they imagine are the people living in the ghetto? Climate change deniers like myself?
The subliminal message is there. In the future imagined by the forum, the good and dutiful live in the "nice" city while the bad deniers live in the ghetto. I know where I would prefer to live.
Video two. Sprawl-Ville
Megacities on the move - Sprawl-ville from Forum for the Future on Vimeo.
Point 1) Notice the headlines again? We have "Global climate change deal fails" and "Wealth gap reaches historic high". Both I assume, intended to be very bad points about this particular vision of the future.
Personally I like the idea of the climate change deal collapsing and every one deciding to take a fresh look at the issue of AGW, finally deciding it isn't an issue after all.
As for the wealth gap, one of the common traits of our champions for social justice is that they hate wealth. There is an incorrect assumption that in a total free market economy, all the wealth would eventually make it's way to the top.
In a capitalist economy, people are free to create wealth. Those who create more have more, but they also distribute more as they create more employment.
In a socialist economy all the wealth quickly dries up because the incentive to create it disappears.
Look out for more anti-wealth themes in the videos.
Point 2) Here's one almost straight away. "The entrepreneurs have taken over the economy. They give the jobs to their mates"
That isn't even a possible vision of the future. My boss is an entrepreneur. He employs over one hundred people. Are they all his mates?
Point 3) The cars owned buy the elite. "They only buy them to polish them".
So what? You do as you wish with your property. You don't need the approval of others.
Notice the theme in this video? This is the future where we have continued to rely on fossil fuels. Life is harsh, the city is a mess, the roads are impassable, there is a black market for food and the rich are in control of everything.
It would take a green pressure group to envisage such a future. They can't see that problems have a way of being corrected when they reach a certain intensity.
Traffic would never get so bad that you can be in a jam for three days.
Point 4) "Fund our own little business. It's the best way to make a living these days".
I thought the billionaires had taken over the economy? When her business expands, will she employ people to help her, therefore creating jobs and improving the economy?
Video three. Renew-Abad
Megacities on the move - Renew-abad from Forum for the Future on Vimeo.
Point 1) This is the society based on renewable energy. The global climate change deal is back on, so people are living better, more ordered lives, this time as a collectivist society.
Point 2) She works on a Thursday. They have scaled back their hours so there is less money but more time for family.
Less money is again used to represent happiness.
Point 3) She is lucky that her job is still valuable. "It's a service you see. People are so bored with useless products".
No wonder. There's no money to buy them.
Notice how the service sector is "Really valuable" but consumerism has been eradicated? Sounds like North Korea in the 90s.
Point Four) The non transition zone. "They were really left behind by not transferring to a low carbon way of life".
Again the theme is climate change. The only future scenarios where people aren't covered in shit are the ones with the Global Climate Change Deal.
If this future comes to pass, again it will be the fault of the climate change lobby that these people who were not taken in by it all, have now been left out of society.
Video four. Communi-City
Megacities on the move - Communi-city from Forum for the Future on Vimeo.
Point 1) The climate change deal is off again and low lying countries of the world are facing floods.
Point 2) Notice the sign? 80 percent reduction in road fatalities due to traffic tracker.
Point 3) She runs over a cyclist but buggers off because she is busy.
Everyone is back in their collectivist communities, there is no public transport, traffic if controlled by computer and people are so busy they don't stop even if they flatten a cyclist. Low lying countries are to risk from flooding because no one wanted to tackle climate change.
As stated, these are not the Forums preferred visions of the future, only scenarios they think are possible. However, in all scenarios they are certain that climate change will have dire consequences if not tackled, food supplies will be a huge problem and the rich will control the world. All memes that run deep within the green lobby.
Each video contains the same deep message. people living in the future are very green, very collectivist and very non-consumerist. Those not like this, live in the ghettos.
If I did a video of a possible future it would go in an alternate direction.
My vision of the future is totally different. Governments have been scaled all the way back. Individuals, businesses and corporations are left alone to flourish without interference from governments or pressure groups.
A free exchange of work, of values and of ideas can take place between individuals.
Only then can human achievements really begin to shine and make a difference. Only then can we really solve the problems of mankind, get rid of the "Cry Freedom Ghettos" and live together.
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