Exploring Solar Radiation Modification Futures with School Children ~ Umar Sheraz

At Teach the Future, we are constantly inspired by the dedication and innovation of our network members who show up for young people in meaningful ways. When educators and facilitators create spaces for youth to engage with complex global challenges through futures thinking, something remarkable happens: students don't just learn about the future they become active participants in shaping it. This work exemplifies the power of futures literacy in action. Futures literacy, the skill of using the future to better understand the present and expand our capacity to imagine and create, comes alive through practical methodologies like the Futures Wheel, scenario development, and collaborative visioning exercises. These tools don't just teach students what to think about tomorrow; they cultivate how to think about possibilities, consequences, and preferred futures.

The following blog shares a powerful example of this approach in practice. Through futures literacy workshops conducted with secondary school students in grades 6-8 in Islamabad, Pakistan, young people explored one of the most provocative climate interventions on the horizon: Solar Radiation Modification (SRM). What emerged was a masterclass in engaging youth voices on issues that will fundamentally shape the world they inherit. ~ Lisa Giuliani, Director of Young Voices Network

Exploring Solar Radiation Modification Futures with School Children

Umar Sheraz

This blog shares reflections from a series of foresight workshops with secondary school students in Islamabad, where we explored Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) using imagination, systems thinking, and storytelling. Our children represent our future, yet their perspectives are rarely sought regarding the world they will inherit from our decisions. While we passionately educate our children about history, we seldom engage them in discussions about the future, where they will be living. Perspectives from our children ensure diverse voices that can drive innovative solutions and shape a resilient, inclusive future. Saving the planet is going to be a team effort, and the youngest team members bring unbridled zest, energy and optimism! When the inhabitants of tomorrow speak up today, it energizes broader participation. 

For the past three years, I have been facilitating a Futures Thinking Program for students at Unity International School, Islamabad, Pakistan to help the younger generation anticipate and influence the future. This series of interactive, fun and engaging workshops includes separate sessions of girls and boys from class 6 to 8. This year, their recently acquired skills in futures-oriented thinking were applied to explore the future in a geo-engineered world. Solar Radiation Modification poses a plausible and provocative challenge for the future, making it necessary to incorporate the perspectives of those who will live in that future, into the conversation. The goal of our engagement wasn’t to advocate for or against SRM—but to equip students to ask better questions, imagine unintended consequences, and articulate what kind of futures they desire.

Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) refers to methods for reflecting a portion of the sun’s rays back into space to temporarily cool the earth. Proposed techniques include injecting aerosols into the stratosphere (mimicking volcanic eruptions), brightening marine clouds, or thinning cirrus clouds. These approaches are controversial—not yet deployed—and come with huge uncertainties around global impacts, justice, and decision-making. They provide a useful—if provocative—entry point for future-oriented climate discussions using foresight. 

Class Zero

The giggles refuse to stop. The background story of Mount Pinatobu and how it cooled the Earth, incites a lot of gossip and excitement. The idea of “shading” the sun’s rays by injecting aerosols or thinning cirrus clouds, invokes more giggles.  The challenge put forward to this cohort is that they need to explore the future in a world where Solar Radiation Modification is a reality. They were encouraged to choose one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as actionable items and imagine an expected future in geo-engineered world. Their first challenge is using the futures wheel 🎡 to map the primary and secondary impacts of SRM on any chosen SDG. 

SRM future begin to emerge

The Futures Wheel is a fun tool to help kids (and adults) think about the future! Imagine playing with a big wheel, and writing a bold idea or change in the center. Then, you think about what might happen next, like ripples in a pond, and write those down on the next ring. You keep exploring, thinking about what might happen after that, and what might happen after that. It's like a game of "what if?" that helps us think about how our choices and actions can affect the future. By using the Futures Wheel, the kids practice the art of anticipating consequences and thinking critically about the world around them.

The dialogue that emerged is a pleasant amalgam of creativity, exuberance, awe and hope. While many children express amused skepticism of the notion, many ideas like an escape from scathing summers❄ (ice-creams 🍦don't melt easily), lunar energy panels, vitamin-D deficiency, make their appearance. For their home assignment, the children are encouraged to think about the impact of SRM on their chosen SDG, in a local context.

Class 1 – Anticipating the Future using the Futures Wheel

The class is abuzz with excitement of students eager to present their thoughts and artifacts of the future. The futures wheel is a beautiful tool to think about the consequences of “What if ?” questions and generate ideas about what might happen next.  I have seen many practitioners use the futures wheel but I must admit that these kids bring out some of the more creative representations of the futures wheel that I have come across.

1. One group anticipated a world without global warming, solar panels losing utility and where ice cream does not melt easily.  

If ice-cream🍦does not melt, Solar Radiation Modification must be doing something right – key insight from an inhabitant of the future

2. A group exploring climate change in an SRM future anticipated a world with less rainfall, increased fuel usage/ costs, and higher food prices.  

3. The group working on Education anticipated a world with low energy levels, withering plants and depleted moods. 

To further the dialogue about an SRM future, the students were then encouraged to put on their “creativity cap” and create a scenario story about the future. They were motivated to imagine a world in which the sun's rays have been blocked and write a story (20 to 25 lines) about a character based on the following prompts as their assignment, for next class. 

i. Name of the character

ii. Location

iii. An event which happens to the character in this story

iv. What does the character like and dislike about this event ?

v. How does the character overcome the problems he/she faces?

vi. Provide a title for the story.

Storytelling through scenarios helps in building the foundation for how children understand the world and imagine possible futures in which they will be living. The narrative format helps children visualize futures beyond their current reality with children often projecting themselves into the characters of a story. 

Class 2 – Imagining life in an SRM future

The giggles are more audible and the excitement of sharing stories of the future is buzzing. Building on the “What if?” questions and their impacts, life in the future is depicted as a scenario story. These stories imagine alternative futures, including dystopian worlds, technological advancements, and colorful flights of fantasy, allowing the reader to explore probable outcomes and human responses to them. My apprehension was that SRM as a scientific and ethical concept would be tricky for children to grasp directly, but storytelling turned these ideas into relatable experiences.

1. A short story by a group of girls depicted the travails of Winkle, an air particle who gets disillusioned by the sudden blocking of the sun’s rays.

2. Another group created a comic strip about Chacha Bashir, a fisherman who gets caught in the dark while fishing. Eventually he is rescued and is inspired to start a people’s movement to reopen access to the sun.

3. Yet another group created a descriptive drawing board about Hira, a girl who has only known darkness and her struggles with the creatures of the darkness. That is quite a tall building to climb and claim the light – a true tale of the Heroine.

Rather than teaching students what to think about SRM, futures thinking helps them explore how to think about its possible impacts on the world they will inherit. Using scenario stories, the children were able to engage with the dilemmas of their characters. Storytelling allowed the children to imagine plausible future scenarios, and deliberate about the long-term impact of human actions on the Earth.

Until this point, we had been discussing expected futures, their consequences and trying to flesh out the details of such a future. This was an appropriate time to explore a preferred future (what do you want to happen?) in the given circumstances. Preferred futures intends to shift the focus from being a passive observer to being active creators of their own lives.

Class 3 – The images of a Preferred future

A preferred future is a vision of a desirable future state that an individual, organization, or community would want to achieve (or avoid). To envision a preferred future, it is essential to take into account ethical, economic, environmental, and social elements that influence future trends and potential advancements that could affect our desired outcomes. In terms of the SDGs under consideration, the following preferred futures emerged.

1. For a group pondering over SDG 14 (Life Below Water), there was concern about what would happen to fish in dark and cold waters.  

2. A group came up with their wish list of bare-essentials for a preferred future, including cheap energy, human dignity, access to clean air and water, etc.  

3. One group continued their storyline of a social media influencer named Shamo and her struggles when all gets dark. She works towards a preferred future where she launches a candle business and integrates candles and alternative lighting into her professional work.

Class 4 – Imagining a Futures Bazar in an SRM world

In our final class, we decided to make a complex futures like SRM geoengineering approachable, by encouraging creativity, foresight and entrepreneurship. Created by Stuart Candy, the Futures Bazaar toolkit serves as a framework for public imagination, designed for hosting collaborative gatherings or design jams. In these sessions, participants take ordinary items from their homes and reimagine them as unique creations inspired by alternative futures, sparking inspiration, amusement, and thought-provoking discussions. These artifacts serve as provocative, tangible clues to spark conversations about what the future could look like and how we might shape it. Just as people travel to gain new experiences and understand different lifestyles, the Futures Bazaar allows individuals to delve into one another's imaginations. 

In the final class, the children were invited to imagine and produce future artifacts in an SRM world, where every artifact tells a story. 

1. One group of kid entreprenuers imagined a hologram robot which controls a Burj Al Arab-sized battery, to store and disseminate energy. The entrepreneurs designed designer Hijabs for the hologram robot. 

2. Another group of kids imagined a high-energy plasma gun which could be used as a portable energy source. The entrepreneurs followed up with a prototype gun, ready for deployment.

3. A group of girls imagined a world in which gladiator-style games become the new norm and global tournaments are conducted as people have nothing else to do. Society is structured around these spectacles, with individuals trained and competing as gladiators, and the games serving as a form of entertainment, and techno-social control. The entrepreneurs were considering making interfaces for such events.

These imagined artifacts, posters, or technologies from the future, flip the idea of anticipating the future into something more collaborative, imaginative, and emotionally engaging. 

Moving Ahead

The world can seem to be a frightening and uncertain place. This was the fear of the future that prompted me to have conversations about SRM futures with kids of class 6 to 8. What has emerged is an amalgam of creativity, fun, innocence, exuberance and a will to take on tough challenges, with a smile on the face. My key takeaway has been that as discussions about SRM governance continue to evolve in new geo-political realities, there is a need for dialogues about the future, by those who will be living with the consequences. Navigating an “unavoidable” crisis like SRM geo-engineering requires the capacity to imagine and shape the futures, and this kind of “collective play” is key to imagination. If we do not take the time to imagine and shape the future, someone else surely will, and we will be living in the world, shaped by their imagination and ambition. Such a future might not be a preferable future for billions of people. Global emerging issues like SRM require shared struggle, purpose, and values beyond self-interest, at a global level. I hope that this series of activities inspire more dialogues with kids and youth. 

Our activity revealed that young people are eager to engage with complex climate issues like SRM, and they bring valuable perspectives to the table. Through imaginative play and discussion, participants demonstrated a nuanced understanding of the potential benefits and risks associated with climate interventions. This exercise highlighted the importance of fostering creative and critical thinking in children as they navigate the challenges of climate change. Imagination and play are critical parts of responsible engagement, allowing individuals to explore complex issues in a safe and interactive way. For those looking to replicate this activity, we suggest entering this dialogue space with an open mind, embracing flexibility, and encouraging “childish” perspectives. By doing so, we can empower young people to become active participants in shaping a more sustainable future.

Acknowledgments

I am thankful for Madam Sobia Irum and Hashir Zuberi at Unity International School for creating such beautiful dialogue spaces with children. I would like to thank Hassaan Sipra and Schuchi Talati at the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering (DSG) for their kind support in this project.