Imagine your perfect world. What makes it different from this one? Shared religious values? Racial tolerance? The supremacy of one group (probably your own) over another?
Well, my utopia, of course, has to do with the environment. Maybe someday I’ll write a piece of quasi-science fiction about it, but for now, I’ll simply describe what I believe is a possible and hopefully near future.
Let’s start with the average human house. McMansions will be a thing of the past, replaced by varied and beautiful homes based on historic and organic designs and made of local materials, everything from wood and stone to earth and straw bales. Houses could look like 1920s bungalows, English stone cottages with thatched roofs, or even Hobbit houses and would reflect their environment. They will be much smaller than today’s houses, but with space used much more efficiently and effectively. Instead of thousands of acres of suburbs with their pointlessly twisting asphalt streets and no sidewalks, neighborhoods will be smaller clusters, divided by parks and linked by clean, fast public transportation (think high-speed elevated monorails) and pedestrian sidewalks and trails.
Urban areas will still exist, but be more compact with every borough a mixed-use neighborhood. That is, mixed-residential, commercial, and public-use spaces. We’ll still use cars, but they’ll be small and electric, using renewable electricity sources, and public transportation will be fast, clean, eco-friendly, and free. Most urban places will be pedestrian-only. Parks and green spaces will dot the landscape, as will public and community gardens. Up above the city street the rooftops will sport thatches of green grass and rooftop gardens. The air will be as clean and sparkling as the air in the country and greatly expanded national parks.
Instead of big-box stores providing all our needs, there will be a return of locally-owned and operated independent stores located throughout neighborhoods, with the occasional “mall,” where many small and varied boutiques are located in the same area (for those who still crave convenience). Service-industry jobs that are now virtually defunct, like butchers and bakers (and maybe even candlestick makers), will return en force, giving customers high quality service and products to their neighbors.
Extensive recycling programs will be standard for every community and recycling centers, powered by wind and the sun, will efficiently retransform glass, paper, and metals. Petroleum-based plastics will be a thing of the past, but plastics based on renewable and biodegradable sources (the corn of tomorrow) will take over when plastics are essential. Extensive composting, both private and public, will keep gardens and farms well-fertilized and virtually replace composting, as plastics and paper are composted as well.
Agriculture will be fundamentally changed from the farming we know today. Mega-farms will be a thing of the past as individual, small-scale farms take over using organic and sustainable practices. When possible and especially in dry areas, no-till farming will be used. Urban dwellers who can’t or won’t keep their own gardens can buy in to farms (this is known as community supported agriculture, or CSA) and get a share of the harvest as dividends. Instead of technological behemoths that range thousands of acres, modern-day technology will be put into smaller tractors and harvesters that run on renewable fuel or electricity. Farmers can ship more exotic produce (tropical fruits and seafood) by high-speed elevated monorail across the country. Ranchers would raise free-range, grass-fed animals hormone-free in smaller herds (or flocks) and take care of the grass, just as farmers take care of the soil. Animals will be humanely slaughtered. Most farms, however, would be diversified, both growing produce and raising animals.
Food and clothing prices will go up, now that sweatshop labor is no longer used, but this will be compensated by lower medical/insurance costs, utilities, and transportation costs. Taxes will go up, but be based on percentage of income (i.e. no tax breaks for the rich). Public education will be higher-quality and free (including free, healthy school lunch) with more emphasis on learning and far less on test scores. There will be a national standard curriculum, supplemented by local and regional history and culture classes. This way, all children know the same basics, but will also be fluent in their own culture. Foreign language classes will be a requirement (at least one, preferably two), as will global studies. Science requirements will include ecology and environmental science in addition to chemistry, biology, and physics. Music and the arts will be embraced, and sports will continue to have a solid place, but will become more diverse (think high school ballroom dance team, snowboarding team, martial arts, etc.). Libraries will be extensive and supplemented by networks on the internet. Schools will also have gardens that students work to provide produce for the cafeteria. Playgrounds will be integrated with nature (think hiking paths and streams to play in) and there will be recess before school, before lunch, and after school. Students will take public transportation to school.
America’s love affair with cars will be tempered by free, clean, reliable public transportation and the introduction of sleek, stylish, powerful clean-running cars, some even in vintage styles. Comfortable passenger trains, running on the old tracks, will replace the road-trip (those wishing to travel faster may do so by high-speed monorail or eco-friendly plane) and connect remote towns and villages.
National parks and reserves will be extended on to old farming and ranching land, especially in marginal areas. Most rivers will be undammed as water use will be so efficient that they need not be drained for irrigation. Many desert towns (sorry, Las Vegas) will be abandoned and/or reclaimed. Once-flooded fertile land will be reclaimed for farming. Within national parks will be extensive no-vehicle and roadless tracts. Paper and wood recycling, coupled with sustainable logging, will eliminate clear-cutting and help restore forests.
Our oceans will be managed by international law to prevent over-fishing and pollution (think cruise ships dumping waste). Coastal ecosystems like mangrove swamps will be restored to prevent erosion and protect against hurricanes and other storms. If it’s not too harmful, maybe some tide turbines (you know, like wind turbines, only powered by the tides) to provide energy for wind- and sun-less areas.
Energy sources will be increasingly localized, with individual solar panels (many nearly invisible in roof shingles and tiles) plugging energy not used by individual families or neighboorhoods back into the national grid. One or two wind turbines will dot every town landscape (like water towers) and the tops of buildings in urban areas, eliminating the need for massive wind farms. Since nearly everyone will have their own source of local energy, electricity will be free and evenly distributed. Geothermal and passive solar construction will take care of most heating and cooling bills.
Poverty rates will be much lower as a safety net of national health care would prevent homelessness due to injury. More locally-owned and operated businesses will ease corporate layoffs. Inexpensive housing will be more widely available due to use of local, renewable materials and lower utility bills. Free public transportation will make it easier to get to available jobs. Crime will be lower because people will be invested in their communities (local businesses, community gardens, local parks, public schools) and higher education will be more widely available. Wages will go up because other costs (utilities, transportation and shipping, health insurance) will go down.
See what caring for the environment could do? Granted, this is my vision of a utopia and is extremely idealistic. There will always be those few who refuse to obey laws and social norms. But most, if not all of the technologies listed above already exist and are in use today. If we plan wisely (and for the long-term, not short-term gain) and make big changes, maybe some day we could achieve something close to my utopia.
For now, it will have to remain food for thought.
