Abstract
Future Design, a new movement among Japanese researchers, asks the following question: what types of social systems are necessary if we are to leave future generations sustainable natural environments and sustainable societies? One such method is using an “imaginary future generation,” and I overview the literature including the background of this method, the results of relevant laboratory and field experiments, and the nature of relevant practical applications in cooperation with several local governments.
This paper is based upon my keynote speech at the Future Earth Philippines Program Launch meeting held in Manila on the 19th of November 2018. I thank all comments and suggestions at the meeting. This research was supported by Scientific Research A (17H00980) of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN Project Number 14200122).
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Notes
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Approximately 55 million years ago, there was an age called the PETM (Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum) in which Earth’s climate was the warmest. According to Yasunari (2018), the current CO2 emission level per year is about 10 times that of the time of the PETM.
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Saijo, T. (2019). Future Design. In: Laslier, JF., Moulin, H., Sanver, M., Zwicker, W. (eds) The Future of Economic Design. Studies in Economic Design. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18050-8_35
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