The 2040 documentary film was produced by Australian Damon Gameau as a letter to his 4-year-old daughter in 2019 to imagine what the world could look like in 2040 if current innovative technologies in energy, agriculture, transportation and urban planning were fully implemented.
It is a film of hope. Damon starts off describing villages in Bangladesh where solar powered micro- grids are already powering entire villages. He demonstrated how emerging economies can leap-frog over traditional centralized energy systems directly to distributed systems based on renewable energy. He explores the benefits of regenerative agriculture, where tillage techniques can trap carbon in the soils instead of releasing this carbon through traditional industrial agriculture. He dives into oceans where there are few living plants and explains how aquaculture based on seaweed can trap millions of tonnes of atmospheric carbon and provide a wealth of resources.
His description of transforming transportation and redesigning cities is compelling. Damon shows how electric car sharing and self -driving vehicles will transform city structures. Parking lots will no longer be needed and can be transformed to urban agriculture and low cost housing. Roads can be converted to pedestrian walking and cycling systems, thus improving overall public health and wellbeing. The transformation will create thousands of jobs in every major city and spur creative living communities.
His daughter blossoms into a highly trained young lady in 2040, demonstrating the growth of females in a more egalitarian society around the world thus reducing population growth and tapping into the vast potential of women in a transformed society.
The film is endearing, highly personal yet based on practical applications of proven technologies existing today but scaled onto a global platform. The policies to boost this transition are unfortunately not explained, but the powerful message that a new future is possible will provide the basis for a new generation of policy makers to create the future will all want for our children.