'I have visions of myself living in a high-tech future like some bizarre episode of Dr Who, minus the aliens and sonic screwdrivers'

14-year-old Kizzy Ives gives us a teenager’s view of what the future might hold for children of today

It’s not easy to predict the future. And I expect that, in 50 years time, when things have moved on and I’m getting old, I’ll be saying to my children ‘It wasn’t like that when I was your age. That’s what my parents say to me today, because things have changed dramatically since they were young.

My mum and dad never had computers and they weren’t watching TV all the time. They definitely didn’t have games consoles to leave on standby and the majority of their food was probably sourced in the UK. Back in the day, when they were just innocent teenagers, they were much more eco friendly. But as the years have rolled by and the world becomes more advanced, we’ve started to abuse our position of being able to get fruit from far-away exotic countries, and we have the money to leave our beloved appliances on standby, running up our carbon footprint like a bill.

Every little helps

Personally, I like to cycle a lot and I at least try to remember to turn off lights. I think of this as helping the environment because obviously every little thing we do contributes in some way. On the other hand, the computer never gets turned off; we don’t always buy organic or locally sourced food and the WWF Carbon Footprint Calculator tells me I’m living as though there are 2.29 planets to support us. Surely that can’t be good? If everyone is living like I supposedly am, and I expect a lot of people are doing worse, then it seems the world going into a meltdown is a sure thing. But then again, maybe not - does anybody actually know?

For a young person lik eme, it’s a little bit frightening to think that when I grow up, the world could be a total mess, and that in turn, my children might be living in an even worse one. It’s a scary thought that if I went to sleep now and woke up in 50 years, the world might be totally unrecognisable.

I have visions of me when I’m older, living in an abnormally high tech house, with a half-car-half-motorbike type vehicle that floats above the driveway. My children will understand computers from a young age and nothing will be handwritten or done manually anymore, just typed and achieved electronically. It’s like some bizarre episode of Doctor Who, minus the aliens and sonic screwdrivers.

People who care

It’s good to know there are people in the world who actually care about what could happen in the future. There are the people who try to be as eco-friendly as possible in conjunction with their lifestyle. Then there are the total environmentally friendly freaks. Not freaks in a bad way, but a good way, known more widely as ‘eco warriors’.

But everyone knows scientists have been wrong in the past, so who’s to say they’re not wrong about all this environment stuff? Maybe it’s highly unlikely but there’s nothing wrong with a bit of hope. It’s undoubtedly all down to humans, and it’s up to us to make a change.

For example, if we go round, killing animals willy-nilly and unsystematically, it’s not just feeding people, it’s potentially destroying an eco-system. I’m no vegetarian but I know that by taking one animal out of a food chain, it’s also putting the creatures that were dependent on it at risk, leading only to extinction.

All this makes it hard to be optimistic about the environment, with global warming and climate change always being talked about, but maybe if everyone was that little bit more willing to put in an extra effort to be environmentally friendly, then the world would be a whole lot better off. It’s almost impossible to predict. And only time will tell.