Design and Futures, Ethics and Sustainability

Our current opinions of ethics and sustainability seem to be informed by crises- climate change and its physical effects, dwindling resources and the unequal distribution of wealth. Rapid technological advances are often to blame for our current situation-increased pace of life, mass production, mass consumption, planned obsolescence. Since the industrial age, the advancement of technology promised progress in society, leading to better(and more material) lives for people.

It is at a time like this when the anime film "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind"(1984 by Hayao Miyazki) is really relevant. The film is situated in a future where human civilization and the earth's original ecosystem have been destroyed. Human settlements are few and scattered, and the earth is engulfed by a lethally toxic jungle. Life is still technologically advanced but more sustainable and much closely linked to nature. The story is driven by a central character, Nausicaa, who possesses great empathy towards humans, animals and other beings. Her belief in living harmoniously with nature is especially inspiring. Later in the film, past human disputes and battles and through Nausicaa's efforts, do we realise that the lethal toxic jungle is actually the earth's process of creating a new ecosystem.

I was really inspired by the film, with its underlying ecological and humanistic messages. It also helps us to understand how the questioning of issues of ethics and sustainability could inform us of our future actions. Perhaps the future does lie in our technology and innovation, but driven towards a goal of integrating us back into nature(for example scientists are now seeking ways of harvesting energy released from micro-organisms and making it into a long-term, stable reality). The current zeitgeist of our time certainly reinforces this idea. Designers from this point on play a huge role in shaping the future and making it happen. Taking inspiration from nature, design could play the mediating step of helping us change our ideas of material comfort, piloting all of us towards a 'back to basics' future.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausica%C3%A4_of_the_Valley_of_the_Wind
http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/journal/v4/n7/full/nrmicro1442.html