Shade in Which I Will Never Sit

What do we owe to future generations that have not yet been born?

We can’t know the future. We can’t know, for certain, what will benefit people in a hundred years, let alone a thousand. If we look at people a hundred or a thousand years ago, we certainly wouldn’t want them to cement our modern paths too much, would we? We want to have room to advance our knowledge on our own.

But still – certain broad strokes are pretty safe. We’re probably doing fine if, at minimum, we don’t arbitrarily reduce the resources or choices of future humans.

Consider: maybe in the future, the British Empire rises again and does all sorts of evil stuff. And maybe that would have been prevented if we made the ocean levels rise so much that the United Kingdom is swallowed by the ocean. While that’s… possible, it’s certainly far-fetched enough that we can say it’s probably better if we don’t start sinking populated islands any time soon.

If you plant a tree and it turns out that whoever lives on your property in a hundred years doesn’t want it, they can cut it down – and have the wood, too. But if it turns out they’d like the shade, shade in which I will never sit, they can’t come back in time a hundred years and plant the tree.

So make small choices like that, when you can. Improve resources, improve choices. And enjoy the shade that’s here now, thanking people who can no longer hear you.