2040

Every year, as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, the sky erupts in dazzling colors and deafening noise by fireworks. For many, it’s a moment of joy. But for countless animals, it’s sheer terror.
Pets cower in corners, stray animals flee in panic, and wild creatures abandon their habitats in confusion.

And it's not just them. The explosions also bring distress to children, the elderly, and people with sensory sensitivities—those with autism, PTSD, or anxiety disorders. Meanwhile, the air thickens with pollutants, leaving behind toxic particles that linger long after the celebrations have ended. That’s our hidden costs of beautiful.
Yet, despite the harm, fireworks persist—because they are tradition. Because they are spectacle. Because we haven’t stopped to imagine a better way.
We questioned whether fireworks truly belong in the future. To find out, we turned to artificial intelligence, asking it to predict when humanity would finally abandon pyrotechnics. The answer was 2040.
If the end of fireworks is inevitable, then postponing change is a choice. A choice to continue causing distress to animals. A choice to keep polluting the air. A choice to ignore the harm we already know exists.
That’s why we created Movement 2040—a movement to defy AI’s prediction and bring the future closer. Instead of waiting for change to happen, we will accelerate it, inspire it, and prove that our intelligence can outpace artificial forecasts.