Are we having fun yet?
The idea struck me during an exercise in a workshop where a group of us were looking at pictures of snow. More specifically, a visual representation of the mountainous backdrop to Vancouver, with successive overlays suggesting where the snowline might begin in the early Spring, depending on the effects of different climate change scenarios. Rather than discussing how accurate those predictions might be, we instead asked ourselves ‘Now what could we do if the situation looks like this?’ ‘Or how about this?’
What would a more moderate winter mean for drinking water supply? For the tourism industry? Or for transport infrastructure and other municipal services? What are the possible ways that industries, infrastructures, and lifestyles could adapt?
The workshop was hosted by the BC Climate Action Secretariat, and featured a presentation of work being done through UBC’s Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning, using visual representations to engage people in imagining what their communities might look like in the future, and then identifying concrete steps to get there.
(c) Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning
A growing range of tools are being used to help people decide what the options are for the future of their regions. It’s not just about climate change, either. The Natural Capital Project uses a mapping program called InVEST to help communities make decisions that include the value of the services provided by ecosystems – things like water filtration, flood protection, and cultural and aesthetic values. A free software called CANVIS is being used to help planners visualize options for shoreline development, which is particularly valuable in relation to sea level rise. In Northwest BC, WWF has run workshops using a very engaging tool developed in Australia called the Futures Game, in which participants make critical decisions that determine the future of a hypothetical region as it deals with changing economic and environmental factors.
What a lot of these approaches have in common is that they use visual aids – maps or 3-D presentations of landscapes – to help people imagine what the future could look like. Most importantly, these tools enable people to get beyond feeling small and insignificant in the face of change and instead work together to come up with creative and practical solutions that enable us to adapt to change while deepening our awareness of and appreciation of the connections between the natural environment, the economy, and society.
People who use these tools for a living have a name for this approach: ‘scenario planning’. What struck me afterward was that this exchange of ideas and creative thinking was occurring because of climate change! In a way, the issues that climate change raise are enabling a shift in how we work together to think about our shared future. And that is very encouraging.
For an example of a visualization of the future with a smorgasbord of creative adaptations, check out WWF’s own Living Planet City.
