Hello again. This Sunday message is a bit out of the ordinary, but as I mentioned in this week’s newsletter, I’m looking to change up Forge the Future in the coming weeks for a few reasons, and I wanted to explain what’s changing and why.
The status quo
I’ve been running this newsletter for a little over a year, and despite my complete failure to spread the word, has gained a small following (thank you to everyone who has subscribed and read, I really appreciate it!). However, I’ve felt more and more recently that it needs a re-focus from that early direction I chose, to be both more enjoyable to write for me, and hopefully more interesting to you.
I trialed a few different ideas in the early days of the newsletter, and settled on a format that covered as much news as I could each week. That unfortunately leaves little room for insight and analysis. Climate change is by its nature a long running and broad battle, and there will always be wins and losses. But that scale means that each story is part of a larger narrative, and if I have but a sentence per story, that bigger picture is often missed - something I’d like to change.
The other aspect that I’ve wanted to fix for a while is a lack of focus. In many ways it reflects where I started it from - I was early in my climate journey, and still figuring out one end from the other. A year on, I have a clearer idea of both what’s possible, and what I am fighting for.
A positive vision
For me, one of the most exciting elements of the fight against climate change is that the solutions we have have the potential to radically alter our society for the better. Climate change has in many ways been a lens onto the many of the struggles we face in society, from racial injustice to overexploitation of natural resources. In doing so, it also gives us permission to consider more profound solutions and alternatives to the status quo. As Bill McKibben said in June:
If we’re just going to use solar power instead of coal to run the same sad mess of unfair and ugly oppression, is it really worth it?
Another apt quote comes from the late science fiction author Ursula K Le Guin, when she said in the intro to The Left Hand of Darkness:
The future, in fiction, is a metaphor.
Considering and imagining the future holds a lens up to our world and to ourselves. It is both a way of exploring what could be, but also the way things are now, and maybe allows us to question our current status quo.
So what does this mean for Forge the Future?
Content-wise, this is more of an evolution than a redesign. You’ll still receive climate news in your inbox every Wednesday, but I’m going to shift towards covering a few stories more thoroughly than trying to fit in everything that comes my way. The format may change a little to reflect the new focus, but it hopefully shouldn’t feel too alien.
However, I also want to explore the possibilities and dynamics of green solutions, and how they could change the world around us, as well as how we best enable them. This could be everything from electric aviation to universal basic income. Some of these topics I know a fair amount about, others very little, but hopefully we can learn together and come out a little wiser about the options ahead of us. I currently see these deep dives coming once or twice a month, as a supplement to the regular newsletter, but I’ll play this a little by ear.
Here’s to the future!
If you made it all the way through this, thank you! Perhaps this didn’t warrant such a long explanation, but it has helped shape my own reasoning and motivations if nothing else, so thank you for bearing with!
I’m going to start with these changes from next week, but they are by no means set in stone, and I’d love to hear your thoughts, both on the overall direction, as well as week by week what you did and didn’t like. As always, you can reach me at oli@forgethefuture.com, or on Twitter if you prefer. I’m also pausing premium subscriptions for the time being. I’m eternally grateful for your support, but given that these changes are significant, and the newsletter will likely be in flux for a while, it doesn’t seem reasonable for me to continue billing for it.
Thanks once again, and see you on Wednesday for the first in the next chapter of Forge the Future.
Oli