Letter from the future competition

Launched by the council in Summer 2022, the competition invited young writers and artists to imagine they lived in 2030 and to write a letter to or draw a picture for their past selves about how the borough had changed over the past eight years to become more sustainable and reduce its carbon emissions.

The competition aimed to get young people to think about how Basingstoke and Deane could meet the ambitious target to become a net zero carbon borough by 2030.

Following the end of the competition, the Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane Cllr Paul Miller and local bestselling author and environment journalist Lucy Jones led the judging. Each of the five winners were presented with books about climate change and sustainability as prizes at a ceremony on Tuesday 15 November.

The five winning entries

Mia Brown (14 years old)

The year is now 2030 and wow what a massive change the world has gone through especially Basingstoke and Deane. I am sure you are wondering what changes have happened?

There aren’t as many trees as there was in 2022 and that is because we needed a lot more palm oil for food to last longer and with everyone switching to paper straws not only are we cutting down trees to get paper to write on but also the paper straws! There is also not that many plants around due to the amount of factories being made to make the paper and its killing of more animals and more people are getting ill by the fumes.

The next I would like to touch on is the weather. Now as you know in the UK the weather is very unpredictable and since everyone has changed to electric and getting buses a lot more since they lowered ticket prices its lowered the chance of climate change. England is well known for the rain and it has rained a lot since the ice caps are melting. It can get very cold here now and weather gets to 25 degrees at a push and the lowest is -3 degrees.

There are quite a few more houses around now as they have made small houses for people to move as they are more affordable. They have also made a lot of flats for the homeless to move into to get them off the streets. The buildings are more eco-friendly now with their materials. All the buildings and quite a few of the houses now have solar panels for energy and they have now been deigned to work at night. They did this as it helps the less fortunate with the bills and they have to worry about electric bills and that is helpful since all house have electric cookers.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Óliver O'Mahoney-de la Pinta (five years old)

Everyone should put their rubbish in the bin, not on the floor.

And the Council can speak to Terracycle and be friends. Terracycle can show the Council what extra rubbish can be recycled and with a different colour wheelie bin, the bin lorry can take this wheelie bin on another day and take it to Terracycle. Terracycle know what to do with it.

Michael Stuart (13 years old)

Eight years have passed, and a lot has changed. Sometimes I like to think back about how the town looked back then, things we did, there’s nothing quite like a trip down memory lane.

Now recycling happens without people even thinking about it, it’s the norm, but back then so much recyclable material would end up in landfill as people just didn’t take the time. Such a waste!

People are healthier, we walk and cycle more and the council bike share scheme really helped to get that started. When those city bikes first appeared, no one was sure it would catch on, but it did and now hopping on a bike to get about town is the done thing. Not only are we healthier but it has had a big impact on the reduction of carbon emissions and air pollution too.

Plastic bags are no more! I wonder how we ever thought they were a good idea really, the handles always broke and half the time they were so small you could hardly get anything in them. Purpose built reusable bags are in everyone’s back pack or back pocket – they fold up small and are no bother to carry around when not in use.

People make better choices and are only buying what we need, this has led to less waste in general and gone is the stigma of buying second hand, in fact now it is much more common and actually celebrated. There is nothing like showing your mates what awesome item you have salvaged and bought back to life.

We have learned to love our planet a bit more and appreciate all the wonderful things she gives us so selflessly.

And in general, I think we are all a little happier for it.

Keep up the great work!

Sophia Stott (11 years old)

Dear readers

I am writing this letter to discuss the matter of climate change in our current year ,2030 .

First of all ,let’s talk about what the weather we are having to cope with.

All countries are experiencing “extreme hot” because of the cars , smoke and gas that has been polluting our air .Also global warming might just surpass 1,5 degrees in the following decades, leading to loss that will be irreversible of the fragile ecosystems.

Moving on ,where is all of the energy coming from? There is now more solar powered energy systems around the world and energy from earth’s wind. Now “based on the most conservative numbers, we need 28 to 35 Terawatts of power.” Will we have enough to provide more than 7 billion people ?

Next ,we have planted over 1 million trees. We have also been uprooting 5 billion trees every year and only replanting around 15 million

trees ,year on year . Planting new trees is one of the most effective ways to reduce atmosphere carbon dioxide (co2) and limit global warming.

Now, let’s discuss about what homes and buildings now look like. Homes and buildings are being made out of bricks and wood, but in a more sustainable way, and source solar panels now, so people won’t have to pay as much as the electricity comes from the sun.

Lastly, let’s talk about how we are getting around! We are taking taxies to the skies, this is reducing congestion on roads and offers a quicker, more efficient way of getting around.

Thank you for taking your time and reading this peace of work. It is a pleasure for me, for you to read this .

Holly Jack (11 years old)

It’s now 2030 and the world looks very different to what it looked like in 2022. The topic of climate change has evolved considerably; everyone is now helping out a lot more.

We have more vans and lorries running on hydrogen, and the number of electric cars on the road has gone from 3% to a massive 75%, all of this is helping us to reducing our carbon footprint and keep our place on this planet. We are still organising protests but they are a lot less because the world has changed so much over these last eight years.

We have done so much to help; we have come up with new ways of travelling including adding solar panels on cars, inventing hovering cars and making the train stations more energy efficient by putting wind and solar panels to help subsidise the trains energy. There has been a new idea to have green walls, because it can help by reducing your carbon footprint and help minimise pollution it can help us as well, when you hear nature, it can improve your mental health. Green roofs can help purify the air, reduces the ambient temperature and encourages biodiversity.

All of this has made the world a different place, it is so much quieter because of the electric cars and all of this has helped us with our mental health. There are now so many different ways of getting energy and we are only just starting.

We have discovered a new way of producing energy; we have used geothermal energy to create the heat and electricity for our homes. It is more cost efficient and sustainably friendly.

All of this has helped us save our planet.

Keep going, keep Basingstoke safe!