Scenarios - Industrial System

Fishbone diagram

Can we make the manufacturer liable for waste throughout the product lifecycle?

If yes...

Sustainable Industrial Revolution

If no...

Will the current growing level of consumption be sustainable if natural resources become scarce?

If no...

Waterworld Resource Reclamation

If yes...

Will increased levels of protectionism lead tp a redistribution of manufacturing across the world?

If yes...

Make Every Country Great Again

If no...

Business as usual

Waterworld resource reclamation

Question: If water becomes scarce, will the global manufacturing industry continue to sustain current consumption levels?

A day in the life of Anna

6 am….as my alarm rang, I jolt awake. I can’t miss my reservation. I grab a change of clothes, and rush to the county sanitation facility for my shower reservation next to the laundry room of our building. I have been so excited for my 10-minute shower reservation spot – it was not easy to book, let me tell you!

In the last 5 years… fresh water has been so scarce that the new government policies allow 2 10 minutes shower availabilities for all people (except the rich and well connected… who for sure who could afford it). One barrel of water costs same as one barrel of oil dis 10years ago. Human consumption has grown as it would naturally since 2020, yet the availability of water and other natural resources. have not been able to match population growth. Hence now on top of my building, next to the solar panels are pipes and basins designed to collect rainwater. Near these basins, are where I grow what I can with what I collect. To some extent, everyone grows their own vegetables (for eg. tomato, beans, onions etc. on the side scaffold cages). These “victory gardens” decrease the need for air conditioning and happen to be aesthetically pleasing at the same time.

Other resources have been scarce as well such as wood, iron, trace minerals etc. Without water, there are fewer trees, for instance. We have had to use reclaimed materials to construct shelters and structures, especially in developing countries. Plastics exhumed from landfills have been compressed into bricks and used to create housing projects as a proactive solution to our climate shift and need for homes.

In the last five years, the government has subsidized material science and biotechnology vocational programs to combat the setbacks that the manufacturing industry has faced. The experts in this field are getting paid better than IT and Data scientists now. It is near impossible to fashion products without the use of water. Just as well, impossible to maintain hygienic production for the workers and surrounding environment. Thanks to this investment, the fast fashion companies that remain from the old world now fashion garments from new sweat wicking fabrics, so that we don’t smell so bad between showers. These innovative technologies came into place a few years back. My bed that initially would have been made of a combination of wood, steel and a mattress has been replaced with a unique alternative (recyclable plastic and other components of landfill) which is strong and durable and can be 3D printed into a mold of bed frame and on top is a mycelium (type of sponge fungi) that can be treated to be soft to be used as alternative to mattress.

Now, governments are putting in place a mix of policies, incentives, and tariffs to steer local industries and innovations to align with what resources are available and scarce. Almost all the industries hence had to radically adapt, and if they could not, they were replaced by those who were less reliant on water, or at least, in better standing financially. A new industry linked in landfills getting mined for rubber, steel and other stuff has caught up momentum. Some scrap finds can be traded almost in gold prices!

After my cold shower, I make a shot of kefir-coffee. Since we don’t have coffee beans grown here (I miss my regular Starbucks coffee that was in every corner when I was growing …sob!). So, the next alternative to caffeine source is a lab grown coffee beans with bacteria that is sustainable and easy to replenish. Not just coffee but majority of meat products are now lab grown. Animal farming had become so challenging in terms of availability of feedstocks and water and adding too much CO2 that our government put huge tariffs on it that eating it became just too expensive. Hence the industries had to move into cultivating meat in lab.  

I take out my iPhone which is now looks like folded sheet of unique plastic-glass. The product designs of new products have changed. New generation iPhone look different now than how it did. Coffee in hand, I quickly scan through the news on the internet. Since natural resources in some countries have become so low that lit has triggered another huge wave of migration. Especially since oil has been depleted the people in middle east, their power in world in terms of oil has diminished. Refugees crisis has never been worse since people there are trying to make their way to other countries. There has been a big debate if the Saudi sheikhs (billionaires) can pay their way to get citizenship of Canada (one of the richest countries currently due it its abundance of natural resources) or the government must be fair and give equal chance to other people trying to immigrate. 

Who would have thought the world would change so much in a decade…