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
Politische Entwicklung
Ban on religions, as these are the main drivers of terrorist attacks and wars. AI should be developed with great caution to prevent a possible danger. German politics should be completely rethought, no more party coercion in the parliamentary groups and each party must vote on draft laws. The absence of party coercion means that every member of parliament can also vote in favor of a law of the other party, but also against bills of his party, so that no party would have to come to power alone or through a coalition and a freer democracy would be created.
hallo
Frieden
After years of unrest and wars, all the ministers, chancellors and presidents sit down together and negotiate a lasting peace. Everyone knows that there is only one chance. And...it works, after years of cooperation, the fruits of peace and prosperity can be reaped.
hallo
Europa
A Europe where peace reigns. Travel is possible without any border controls. Everyone will be able to afford electricity from renewable energy sources. Public transport will be so well connected that you won't need your own car, even in rural areas. Car sharing will be used for larger purchases. The environment will be so well protected that even almost extinct animal and plant species will be able to regenerate.
hallo
Immagino
I envision a Europe where the dictates of political parties are just a bad reminder of how things have failed in the past. I imagine a single land of European peoples united by a common interest in solving their own problems, without having to deal with political assumptions that have led to the collapse and ruin of democratic states and the despair of so many citizens, who have lived and suffered within a community that should have solved so many problems and, instead, has brought new ones. I imagine my Europe, for which I fought my most tender years, free from the accartona politics, whose goal is the seat, it is their own "particulare," and not the family (that of others); it is the appearance at any cost, putting their signature on even the most unimaginable documents. They care little anyway, as long as they "enter history." So much for Europe, to which they fatten themselves by saying they are parliamentarians. I imagine Europe uniting peoples and people, but, not with a common currency, which has impoverished them. A Europe that is not carried away by the often morbid imagination of a few, and that, above all, the men and women who represent it, live on this earth!
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!

Our-futures-banner-coloured_v3.jpg

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