Yesterday I joined the 1st Love Conference on Tomorrowland, a conference focused on sustainability. A bit of positioning, a bit of greenwashing, but in the end a much appreciated attempt to inspire the People of Tomorrow in a magical setting.
image: copyright hln.be, NYT, Photo News, ANP
A few highlights for me were:
- The brilliant Nadine Bongaerts, who is a synthetic biologist and who is developing ethical and sustainable poultry and meat, based on the cultivation of stem cells. So: real meat, real poultry without the need for animals. And thus: no processed alternatives, and with the full nutritional value. I had the chance to discuss with her during the break how she thought this innovation could include rethinking the role of the farmers, and how the right story and transitioning model could take/keep all stakeholders on board. Co-creation instead of opposition.
- An artist with his feet on the ground, Lucas De Man, who founded Biobased Creations, exploring a.o. biodegradable construction solutions. His talk was not only inspiring for the tangible solutions, but at least as much for his provoking thoughts on how we need to rethink sustainability (‘to sustain’ means not change anything…), and how the biggest crisis we face is a crisis of Values. I echo that.
- Social Entrepreneur Dennis Karpes showed that you don’t always need big revolutionary actions to have an impact. With his movement Justdiggit, he is unleashing a green revolution in Africa, by simply digging reservoirs capturing the limited rain in the likes of Kenya and Tanzania.
- I loved the quote shared by Arash Aazami, activist entrepreneur, that you never change things by fighting the existing reality, but that to change something you need to build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
- There were three stories from people who went strongly against ‘the system’, and each of them managed, or is managing, a breakthrough by daring to be the underdog (as said by David Sirota, a.o. director of the movie Don’t Look Up), by persisting in an incredible fight with disgusting opposition from the oil lobby (as vocally supported by the amazing DJ Ida Engberg - check www.freedonzinger.com), or by turning his passion and his purpose into obsession (like Ali Tabrizi, director of Seaspiracy, the groundbreaking Netflix-documentary).
But I have to admit, the main reason I came to the conference was to listen to one of the brightest people on the planet, Yuval Harari. The hour-long interview after having showed the experimental animation ‘Once upon A.I.’, was no disappointment. Harari is a man humble enough to say he doesn’t have the answers, but also brave enough to make some bold statements, saying that our future is not predictable but will depend on our decisions.
A few thoughts he shared:
- The solution for the climate crisis is not technological but political. We have all the knowledge and the economical resources to solve it, the tools are there but the political motivation not (yet). The best estimate is that we need to invest 2% of our global GDP into the right projects, which is a lot of money, but if this is our priority it is perfectly doable.
- We should avoid the 'shame game' where we focus on what others are not doing, instead of just doing what we can do. And we must never forget that the main responsibility to solve the climate crisis is with politicians and big corporations, who are trying to push away their responsabilities by telling us what we as individuals should do…
- Anger is not a good emotion when it comes to tackle the problem, since it destroys our ability to collaborate, whilst that is fundamental to succeed.
- He warned that we should be aware of digital dictatorship if a government is using technology to keep all our data in one place whilst not accepting technology to be used to control them… Technology could and should work both ways.
- The world will keep changing at a faster and faster pace, so his best bet for what skills needed for the future is emotional intelligence and mental flexibility and resilience. An interesting insight when raising and educating our children.
So, I’ll be back next year. But now first enjoying the other part of Tomorrowland…😉
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