From Generation to Generation

Do we have a moral responsibility to ensure that the people who will be living in five, fifty, and five hundred years have the same richness of opportunities, richness and diversity of life, and richness of natural environment that we currently enjoy? In a discussion I once had with a moral philosophy student, she argued that environmentalists are guilty of an ethical lapse since they put the well-being of future generations ahead of the well-being of many people currently living on the planet. After all, who is this abstract future generation, and how can we tell, say, people starving in a developing country that they cannot exploit resources for their own survival, all for the benefit of potential people of the future? There is a real dilemma here, and it is absolutely clear that environmental and social inequity are tied together, but our ultimate goal has to be sustainability above all. As hard as it is for social equality to flourish now, if environmental degradation continues on its present course then it will be much harder for future generations, especially the supposedly 9 billion people who will populate the globe by 2050.


I feel this now deep down in my gut, because a very short time ago I became an uncle. My beautiful darling niece is now 19 days old, and anything but abstract. I saw her minutes after she was born, and I just wasn’t prepared for how new she was. The wonderful thing about people is that every single person is thrown into the world totally fresh, and each person gets to discover it for themselves. She was as fresh as a person can get, and the pure joy and hope involved in such a moment can knock you off your feet. She will be the age I am now in 2032, just about the time that the British Science Advisor has predicted a perfect storm of food, water, and energy shortages, throwing the world into political, social, and environmental disarray. Those two thoughts, one the face of my niece as I held her moments after her birth, and the other the potential future that lies in store for her and her generation, react with each other to make my resolve to do something about it stronger than ever.

Tonight is the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the New Year in the Jewish calendar. While history is inexorably creeping forward, our personal lives are largely organized by cycles – the daily cycle, weekly cycle, the monthly cycle, the yearly cycle, and the cycle of birth and death. We are constantly returning to the beginning, able to start a new day, a new week, a new year, a new life. No matter how old you are, each day is a rebirth, a chance to once again discover the world all over again, and an opportunity to create the world all over again. It is an endless flow of opportunity, but an endless cycle of responsibility. This new year, take an opportunity to think of the new life being brought into the world, and do what you can to ensure that their opportunity for joy doesn’t diminish one bit.