top of page

Beneath the Glass Skies

Anonymous

March 19, 2025

Beneath the Glass Skies

This image was generated with Dream Studio AI.

By 2040, Earth was unrecognizable. The scars of climate change had etched themselves across every continent. Rising seas had swallowed parts of coastal cities, while droughts and wildfires claimed once fertile lands. The Earth, though still beautiful, now bore an eerie, fractured majesty—an intricate mix of human resilience and nature's unrelenting wrath.

In New London, a sprawling megacity built atop the ruins of old London, a young woman named Lena tightened her augmented reality glasses and stepped outside. Above her, glass domes shimmered, shielding the city from the temperamental weather outside—acid rain, superstorms, and the occasional suffocating heatwave. These domes, known as Climate Bubbles, had become humanity's final defense against an environment it could no longer control.

Lena paused at the edge of the dome’s district barrier, watching workers in exoskeleton suits reinforce its joints. Beyond the translucent wall lay the Blightlands, a wasteland of dead soil, skeletal trees, and the ruins of smaller towns long abandoned. The land was barren, save for the scavenger drones zipping around to recover rare metals from old tech and the occasional crew of climate engineers planting carbon-absorbing bio-machines disguised as moss.

Life inside the domes was far from perfect. The air was clean, water was drinkable, and food was plentiful, though most of it came from vertical farms that spiraled skyward in shades of green and silver. But the economy was tightly controlled, dominated by mega-corporations that had stepped in to do what governments couldn't during the late 2020s. The tech giant Solaris ran everything from energy grids to public AI, its CEO seen as a messiah to some and a tyrant to others.

related stories

hallo
the future is grandchildren
in 2040 I will be 72 and my children 32 and 31 - I hope I have grandchildren and that they live near. I hope my kids are settled workign and have decent places to live. air and watr are clean. i hope that the weather has settled and the enviroment stabalised - but I doudt it and I think my children will be facing more extreme weather. AI will impact their jobs but not to the extent the pessimists worry. I will be retired - but only just as I enjoy work, i will have a rich cultureal and social life and wont be worrying about caring for othes (those years are behind me). I might need to help my kids finaically just as my parents helped me - but they do ok.
hallo
Se på mig
When you sit in a café in the sun, people talk. The cell phones are gone. You look into each other's eyes and take an interest in each other. Respects differences, sexuality, skin tones and attitudes. They no longer judge each other. There is peace and quiet in the world. No one feels superior to anyone else. The focus is on the contact, interaction and respect between people. There is peace and no stress.
hallo
Ma maison du futur
Always very connected. A detached house that is enough for itself. Photovoltaic panel, water recycling. Have warm in winter and cool in summer. Naturally I have a greenhouse that allows me to eat fruits and vegetables that I produce myself. There will also be cameras for my safety. I would very much like to see other propulsion modes for my vehicle develop, with solar panels to charge my car.
hallo
Czy to bajka, czy nie bajka?
A better future... We drive electric cars, and electricity to them is provided by wind and nuclear power plants. Non-organic plastic replaced glass, in a garbage incineration plant with efficient filters made waste pits finally unnecessary. The air in Polish cities is suitable for breathing even in winter, and in summer we are not afraid of drought and lack of water. And instead of arming, we spend money on health protection and equal opportunities for children and adolescents. All this may be possible, but I'll put it between the fairy tales...
Join #OurFutures now!

The future is shaped by our ideas and our actions today. Tell us about your visions of the future and help us create a futures narrative aimed at inspiring citizens, policy-makers and foresight experts alike!

OURfutures.png

The European Commission support does not constitute endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained.

ERA_logo.jpg

We support the European Research Area aimed at creating a single, borderless market for research, innovation and technology in the EU.

©OurFutures 2025, All rights reserved.

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
bottom of page