we came close to disaster but escaped it. Maybe it took the scare to push us to do something. in the 15 years from 2025 to 2040 we realized that the future is not just an abstract idea that someone else will take care of. Sure, things are not perfect, but eventually an agreement was reached among nations to reduce the emissions that are harming the planet. A new consciousness has spread. On the streets, internal combustion cars are increasingly rare, replaced by electric motors or often even bicycles. Technology has moved on but it has also become simpler, with a taste for the essential that was not there in the past so overflowing with frills and driven consumerism.
Studies show that global warming is coming under control. The damage has been there and new damage will still be there before the end, but work is being done and successes are being seen.
Even in politics having come close to a new world war brought us closer together, first with suspicion, still fearful that this or that other nation was waiting for just the slightest opening for a new attack but then forging bonds. Only 15 years have passed, sure, the process is still in its infancy, but it is well under way.
It is not a perfect world. But it is a better world that is improving