If the last few days in UK politics have taught us anything, it’s that the planet’s leaders need to work more closely to build a sustainable future.
As we marked United Nations Day this week, the backdrop was one of deep global uncertainty. The world’s eyes were on Britain, whose Prime Minister Liz Truss had just resigned, after a total of 45 chaotic days in office. There was still no sign of peace in Ukraine, and the energy crisis had Europe in a death grip.
Seventy-five years after the UN was formed – as a symbol of hope and international cooperation following the Second World War – there has hardly been a time of more cataclysmic change and international corruption in its history. Now, more than ever, the world’s leaders need to put aside their differences and work towards a peaceful, prosperous, healthy planet.
Sounds impossible? I don’t think so. While the crises we’re facing have become more global and interconnected in recent decades, the system of multilateral co-operation that is supposed to address them has not advanced much since the Second World War. The time has come to restructure the United Nations.
In September 2021, the UN Secretary General published a report – “Our Common Agenda” – a process set in motion to consider the options for reforms of the UN and other international organizations, to take place at the Summit of the Future in 2023. This is the perfect moment to create better systems that will not only protect our environment, but also the health and wellbeing of all people on Earth. And we need the visionary leaders who will step up to support them.
At my daughter’s birthday party recently, she invited me to join her and her friends in a treetop climbing playground called Go Ape. They put you in harnesses and you have to overcome obstacles, balance on tightropes, planks, and ladders to get to the next tree. I was asked to take the lead and set off first. The first bit went really well, but in the higher treetop area, I lost my balance and fell. There I was, hanging in my harness from the treetops.
“Go back!” called my husband. I tried to get myself back to where I started but I became tangled in the swings. I did not know how to go forward because I was paralysed with fear – my fight or flight had set in. I knew I had to call one of the organisers for help – to show me how to move forward. I wanted to finish the trail, but realised I had to find a different way.
I believe this is what is happening to us now. We are paralysed with fear about the uncertainty in the world, trying to go back but getting tangled up. What we need is to go forward, but in a different way. We have to start treating this as the emergency it is – for our own sake and for future generations.
I have managed to rewire my own neural pathways, to change the way I work and live, and it has had profound effects. I’ve had intuitive insights about the future of work, the future of our planet, the future of parenting, the future of energy supply, and of international collaboration. I believe we can all tap into the deeper knowledge that is inside us – our inner genius – to change the way we work. But we need to take a step back and slow down to be able to do it.
When tapping into my inner knowledge, this is what I got … a vision for the future of international cooperation and change. I believe it could impact the next generations profoundly.
Dear people of 2022,
Back in 2022, our governments were in a mess. They were constantly putting out fires, sticking Band-Aids on systems that were not working. There were so many inequalities. There was a pandemic, war, economic and political instability, and rising costs of energy. There was a climate crisis.
It was time to create a new way of international collaboration. Governments and countries were resistant. Everybody was too busy to properly take the impact they were having on future generations – on our health and the environment – seriously.
Then another pandemic hit, a climate disaster hit, a toxic dust killed millions of people around the world, trauma and fear increased, and we had to radically change the way we work, live, and cooperate internationally.
Countries and nations came together with one overriding purpose – to protect the wellbeing of our people, the planet, and its wildlife. Wars were stopped and, here in the future, we now have visionary leaders and governments that collaborate and work together. Large countries help small, and we all help each other. Wealthy investors have stepped up to finance these changes, and governments and businesses are kept accountable for the changes they make to help the environment. They are fined on an international level if they don’t take action on the 5 Global Environment Laws, which have been implemented to structuralize and create the change.
The UN has been simplified and restructured to focus on the environment. The World Health Organization implements global laws around wellbeing and burnout that all businesses and governments are held accountable for. The fines are large, and the money raised is used to help create more renewable energy. It’s an amazingly simple but effective circular monetary system. The World Environment Government was created as a force for good.
Here in the future, we are less focused on money than we were in 2022, and we are so much happier! We have created more equality in the world, so that everyone has enough water and food to live. Success is measured in different ways – we celebrate not using fossil fuels, and being able to enjoy a day in nature. We use technology to help advance our connection with nature so we are able to predict climate dangers before they arise.
Here In the future, we align the ethics of our work and its purpose with the world’s needs, and it has increased productivity. We measure burnout with a scientifically backed method, and commit to continually reducing the risk. We have cleaned up our supply chains and have wellbeing as part of our job descriptions and company mission and purpose. We continuously work to help the environment. Protecting physical and mental health is at the heart of everything we do.
Dear people of 2022, there is hope. Sometimes everything has to fall apart so it can be rebuilt in a better, more sustainable way. Do not be fearful, there are amazing changes on the way and we humans are resilient and strong. But governments need to look at radically changing the way they work and collaborate, to ensure we create a healthy, happy planet.
With love from the future, and it’s amazing human beings
I’d like to invite you to take the time to tap into your own inner genius and that deeper knowledge we all have, to change the way we work. I believe we all NEED to tap into our letters from the future – we can then download this information and use it to create this brave new world.
