Dear readers and members on this sub, hi!

I'll try to keep this fairly short and to the point, still I hope y'all are doing okay.

In recent months my mind often circled around the thought "How will the future look like?"

Perhaps fairly obviously, the answer I generally come up with is: "Pretty freaking bad"

When looking at a human timescale and not a geological one (So decades maybe a few centuries, instead of tens of thousands of years), the negatives are readily apparent.

Long-term change of the energy balance of the earth, caused by decades and centuries of industrial activity and carbon emissions.

Degradation of soil and the bio-sphere in general, massive loss of species diversity, depletion of resources, envirormental pollution, melting of glaciers and the polar ice a few more things.

Add on to that the inherent instabilities of a global industralized, mostly capitalistic civilization that relies on growth-based economics, resource extraction and exploitation of a global scale, to sort of kinda function.

With these things interacting with each other; societies, political institutions, militaries, individuals and communities all caught up in a whirlpool of downward trends and a world that is ever more likely to produce conflict and very potentially violence.

Mind you dear reader, I'm writing from Germany, a country in the "global north" so forgive me if my timeline seems overly... conservative? I realize that there are already many people today bearing the terrifying brunt of conflict and the ravages of the climate crisis.

Ultimately the year that always stood out to me would be 2050, mostly because it just seems like a very neat number, middle of the century, with a fair few projections tied to that arbitrary year. However I very much believe that a lot of undeniable stages of collapse could be seen in the year 2040 already.

In terms of temperature as talked about of, the global average measured against a early industrial base-line, where we are fairly solidly at 1.5-1.6° C, from my feeling would proceed to hit 2° C by the mid of the 2030's and then be around 2.7-2.8° C at 2050. Of course this is mostly a gut feeling trying to put a number to a lot of these unprecedented developements.

However, this is just preamble. My core idea I wanted to present is something more specific. When looking at this timeline that would roughly equate to one "generation" 25 years where decisions are still sort of possible and just dictated by an almost primal contest for survival.

When browsing around so to say, for what a person might do to prepare, it's fairly inevitable to come across various ideas ranging from real life prepping, billionaire bunkers, institutionalized preservation strategies and concepts from fiction, Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" as a prominent example.

What coalesced in my mind from these ideas is the concept of Arks. Not a terribly creative name, but ultimately fitting. So... what do I mean by Arks?

Ark - Projects to me would present a truly honest attempt of giving a "group" of people a shot of surviving the chaotic transformations of the 21st century, a shot of preserving valueable human knowledge, a chance to re-emerge into a world that would most likely by unrecognizable in terms of borders and climate, and first and fore-most a chance to live a life that is sustainable, and uses the lessons we as a species have collectively gathered over the centuries, to build a society from the ground up, hopefully thus safe-guarding it from a fair few of the pitfalls we have also encountered: (Authoritanism of a owner/elite Class, violent nationalism/identity, unfettered use of the natural world etc...)

However the kicker with all of this is of course... Funding and the dilemna of an Ark, namely: not everyone gets to board. I'm imagining a project where a nation perhaps funds the creation such "collapse-proofed" communities in favorable locations, with maybe a central urban hub, where limited manufacturing, scientific monotoring, education and planning takes place. Of course such a urban space would be designed around public transport, walkable infrastructure and be connected via trams to surrounding agricultural communities, like spokes on a wheel.

The core goal would be to create a way of living for hopefully tens of thousands of people, that makes due with a lot less energy consumed than the regular modern, western lifestyle. And that energy would be provided to at least 90% from renewables, solar and wind (a fair bit of Solarpunk inspiration, I apologize).

Of course in my reflection I realize the weakness of this quite fanciful fantasy. A government would never fund a project like this, that actively questions the continued existance of our current systems, people would probably be reviled by the idea of a "chosen few" getting to live in a utopia, if the chaos of collapse happens, an Ark would even in a best case scenario would have to somehow survive a potential military attack, coups and untold numbers of refugees would identify such a place as a better bet than somewhere else.

However I wanted to find a little hope and solace in imagining something like this, because ultimately I still am a humanist. I care. I know that's not much, but yeah.

And I'd always think, if collectively we don't manage to build something that is worth saving, that truly acknowledges the sheer scale of our fuck-ups, and gives people are real chance, the alternatives are just so bleak. Either humanity and most life on earth just goes in the dark, unlikely to return, or an apocalyptical chaos would just give way to the wheel starting over. For example should people somehow survive, with so much gone in like 2060, what would stop them from looking to the burning of fossil fuel as their salvation, to regain electricity, do farming and defend oneself etc...?

So yes, this was something I wanted to write out, even if it's most likely very rambly and rough. Thank you everyone that maybe have read parts of this, I'd love to maybe discuss a little further in the comments.
Until then, I hope y'all still manage to find a little happiness in life and be safe <3

tl;dr: In this I outline the concept of Collapse-proofed arks, basically Solarpunk inspired large communities that would function independently (city and surrounding farming villages), and would try to preserve a solid chunk of genetic and cultural diversity in it's population, scientific knowledge, provide sustainable medical care, food production, education etc. (the pillars of civiliation) while being centered around a egalitarian philosophy of communal ownership and responsibilty. All funded in the next few years to get off the ground as a public attempt at dealing with collapse.