I’m sure you have read somewhere, in some shape or form, about the present protecting and saving future generations. However, I would like to propose here how I think future generations could save us now. It’s already happening. It’s not just the activities of Greta Thunberg, but many others, including generations yet unborn.
Bad ancestors
It’s an amazing feat how only a few generations managed to squander what thousands of generations maintained and cared for. We are in the middle of the 6th Mass Extinction Era, which projects a 20 to 50 percent loss of all living species on the planet at the end of this century. In a few decades, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. Our global ecological footprint shows that we need one and a half planets to sustain our voracity for comfort, instant gratification, and material things.
We made the atmosphere an open sewer for greenhouse gases. Like open sewers on land, there is no accountability on what and how much pollution is dumped into the atmosphere. Most of the planet is on lockdown due to zoonotic disease, while economies spiral downward. And like all great injustices, those that are already disenfranchised are the ones suffering most.
If we do not seize this opportunity to make not just meaningful but revolutionary and transformative changes, imagine the world we are handing over to future generations!
In the Philippines, we have the concept of “pamana ng lahi” or racial heritage, which refers not just to material things but more to positive values and principles. Our indigenous peoples are the guardians of this heritage. They have been the epitome of what Roman Krznaric calls the good ancestor, whose prescience and long-term thinking embody true empathy for future generations.
The Iroquois people live by the age-old Seventh Generation Principle that ensures decisions made in the present consider effects on seven generations in the future. Sadly, it seems that humanity's most enduring legacy, as author Elizabeth Kolbert calls it, would be our negative impact on other lives on the planet, and thus on the generations who would inherit the earth.
Intergenerational Responsibility
I remember I was 18 when I became an activist. I told my family I stopped attending university because I would like to be able to help create a better world for my niece and nephew. I didn’t realize then that beyond my family’s young ones, I was also working for the future of other children and unborn ones. Several decades later, I’m still on it, but in other ways. This arduous journey brought me to a short stint with the lawyer Tony Oposa at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.
At this time, I learned about his landmark case Oposa vs. Factoran which has influenced environmental law worldwide. In this case, petitioners represented their children and generations yet unborn in a bid to stop timber logging agreements that would denude some 3.8 million hectares of forests in the country. The court ruled that the petitioners could file for a class suit for themselves, for others in their generation, and for succeeding generations. The Philippine government then restricted logging in remnant old-growth forests after doing an inventory.
This case is a classic example of the idea of caring for generations yet unborn and what environmentalist and author Jane Davidson would later call ‘the tangibility of future generations’. Future generations might seem like a far and intangible idea to many, but just by looking at the eyes of children, one could imagine their children and grandchildren as real as our children now. Who would be their voice but us? We are accountable to them, and we have to protect their right to a sustainable world as much as we protect our own.
Despite tacky fashion, there are a lot of things we should remember from the 1990s by. The 1990 UN Report on climate change raised the alarm about global warming. It was also in 1990 when the Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!) was formed. For 30 years they have been bringing together the youth and intergenerational change-makers to collaborate on environmental initiatives.
Although the Brundtland Report defined sustainable development in 1987, it came into wider consciousness during the Earth Summit. The Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and focused on five issues: Agenda 21, The Earth Charter, the Statement of Principles on Forests, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Convention on Biodiversity.
The Earth Summit marked an explosion of environmental policies globally and is considered one of the most pivotal moments in environmental history. Scientific breakthroughs further solidified climate science during that decade. It was in 1997 that the Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations was founded by five young people, ages 18 to 27. Now a multi-awarded organization, the FRFG raises awareness of intergenerational justice in politics, business, and society.
Lessons from a small country
As Minister of Environment in Wales, Jane Davidson proposed legislation that would, in 2015, enshrine the rights of future generations. Called the Wellbeing for Future Generations Act, it ensures that decisions of public bodies consider the impact on people living in Wales in the future. To show that sustainable development principles are applied, public bodies have to think about the long-term future. It also established the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales whose role is ‘to act as guardian for the interests of future generations in Wales, and to support the public bodies listed in the Act to work towards achieving the well-being goals’.
Nikhil Seth, Head of Sustainable Development at the UN said “What Wales is doing today the world will do tomorrow”. But what better time than today to work for future generations, as ironically, some would say, tomorrow never comes. There are now a few other countries that have established ministers focused on the future, including Sweden’s Ministry of the Future and South Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning.
Futures as tools, Justice as a lens
After years of dabbling with futures, I finally succumbed to its call. Bringing with me two decades of experience in social development work, including nearly a decade of climate engagement and five years of veganism and animal rights activism, I am now working with the Center for Engaged Foresight and the Philippine Futures Thinking Society. PhilFutures was founded in June 2020 to help make Filipinos futures-literate and futures-ready. We are bringing our heads together to develop policy proposals that would integrate futures thinking into all areas of governance. We are thinking of how the rights of future generations will be protected through policies that will be a true ‘’pamana ng lahi’.
My years of engaging in environmental causes and my personal initiatives have led me to integrate justice into my work. The intersectionality of social issues could no longer be denied. And there is no better lens to look into the plight of indigenous peoples, minority communities, climate refugees, the LGBTQ+ community, the differently-abled, women, children, and the elderly, and even the animals, than through justice.
Futures are only a means to an end. Its principles, approaches, and tools are important in developing the long-term mindset needed to make transformation happen. Without it, short-term thinking could doom us into the future we are currently creating. Justice is the bar by which we must measure any short- or long-term solution. In creating the future we want, let us be steered by foresight and guided by justice.
The future we want
The future is leading the way to transformation. Leading activists are getting younger by the day. The words of Filipino youth leader Ditto Sarmiento, in the time of Martial Law still ring true. “Kung hindi tayo kikilos? Kung di tayo kikibo, sino ang kikibo? Kung hindi ngayon, kailan pa? (If we will not move, if we will not speak out, who will speak out? If not now, when?)”. He later died as a political prisoner at the young age of 27.
In 1992, 12-year-old Severn Suzuki spoke at the UN Earth Summit urging delegates to think of her generation when making decisions about the environment. Xiuhtezcatl Martinez also started speaking on the environment at six years old. He is now one of the most influential young voices on the climate crisis.
The African Youth Initiative on Climate (AYICC) has a continent-wide constituency and more than ten thousand members in 42 countries. They have been consolidating youth voices on climate change since 2006. Not to forget the children yet unborn who in their deep slumber in a world unknown, managed to help make the intergenerational responsibility doctrine a reality.
It seems if we only think for ourselves, we would have no future, and the future would not have its present. When we couldn’t save ourselves, we must allow future generations to show us the way. They need, and I dare say demand, a world worth being born into. We must reflect and listen and leave them the future world that they deserve, one that is healthy, inclusive, just; thriving, and life-giving. And by doing so, we are allowing them to save us from ourselves.