future generations
{{short description|People yet to be born}}
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File:Illustration of past, present and future population sizes (Our World in Data).png
Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity.{{Cite web|last=Carmody|first=Christine|title=Considering future generations - sustainability in theory and practice |url=https://treasury.gov.au/publication/economic-roundup-issue-3-2012-2/economic-roundup-issue-3-2012/considering-future-generations-sustainability-in-theory-and-practice|access-date=2021-03-21|website=treasury.gov.au}} The moral patienthood of future generations has been argued for extensively among philosophers, and is thought of as an important, neglected cause by the effective altruism community.{{Cite web|url=https://80000hours.org/articles/future-generations/ |title=Future generations and their moral significance|author=Benjamin Todd | publisher=80,000 Hours |access-date=1 March 2010}} The term is often used in describing the conservation or preservation of cultural heritage or natural heritage.
The sustainability and climate movements have adopted the concept as a tool for enshrining principles of long-term thinking into law.{{Cite web|last=Kobayashi|first=Keiichiro|date=2018-05-05|title=How to represent the interests of future generations now|url=https://voxeu.org/article/how-represent-interests-future-generations-now|access-date=2021-03-21|website=VoxEU.org}} The concept is often connected to indigenous thinking as a principle for ecological action, such as the seven generation concept attributed to Iroquois tradition.{{Cite web|title=Should we legislate on the right of future generations?|url=https://www.equaltimes.org/should-we-legislate-on-the-right|access-date=2021-03-21|website=Equal Times|date=26 June 2020 |language=en}}
Sources
The term refers to the impact which the currently living generation has on the world which future generations will live in, the world they will inherit from humans living today. This concept is referred to in the most widely quoted definition of sustainability as a part of the concept sustainable development, is that of the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations on March 20, (1987): "sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."United Nations General Assembly (1987) [http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future]. Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 - Development and International Co-operation: Environment. Retrieved on: 2009-02-15.{{Cite web|url=http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm |title=Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future; Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 - Development and International Co-operation: Environment; Our Common Future, Chapter 2: Towards Sustainable Development; Paragraph 1 |author=United Nations General Assembly |date=March 20, 1987 |publisher=United Nations General Assembly |access-date=1 March 2010}}
The use of future generations in international law is in part recognized by the Charter of the United Nations which focuses on preventing the "scourge of war" on future generations. With the publication of UN Secretary-General's landmark Our Common Agenda report in September 2021,{{Cite web |last=Nations |first=United |title=Our Common Agenda |url=https://www.un.org/en/un75/common-agenda |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=United Nations |language=en}} there has been a renewed interest in understanding, action for, and representing future generations in the multilateral system.{{Cite web |title=Future Thinking and Future Generations: Towards A Global Agenda to Understand, Act for, and Represent Future Generations in the Multilateral System |url=https://unfoundation.org/our-common-agenda/population-futures-report/ |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=unfoundation.org |language=en-US}}
= UNESCO declaration =
{{Excerpt|Common heritage of mankind|UNESCO Declaration on the Responsibilities of the Present Generations Towards Future Generations}}
Economics
The financial state of people in future generations is widely debated. However, a study in 2022 revealed that a majority of people believe that the financial state of future generations will be worse than their current state. Adults were interviewed in 19 countries (Japan, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, United Kingdom, Australia, United States, Belgium, Greece, Netherlands, South Korea, Germany, Malaysia, Hungary, Sweden, Poland, Singapore, and Israel), and the adults in almost every country agreed that the financial state of future generations would be worse.{{Cite web |title=Will children be better off than their parents? No, says new survey |url=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/08/next-generation-financial-parents-future-money/ |access-date=2023-05-15 |website=World Economic Forum |language=en}}
The 19-country median was 70-27-3 (worse-better-same). The Pew Research Center was responsible for conducting the survey.
Legal rights of future generations
Most implementations of future generations focus on enshrining the rights and needs of future generations in law, in order to represent those unable to voice their needs.{{Cite book|last1=Beckerman|first1=Wilfred|url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0199245088.001.0001/acprof-9780199245086|title=Justice, Posterity, and the Environment|last2=Pasek|first2=Joanna|date=2001-05-03|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-924508-6|chapter=The Rights of Future Generation|doi=10.1093/0199245088.001.0001}}{{Citation|title=Protection of Future Generations: Prior to and during the Anthropocene Era|date=2019|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/climate-change-and-the-voiceless/protection-of-future-generations/38EABEB7839D6410599E3028AB470ACE|work=Climate Change and the Voiceless: Protecting Future Generations, Wildlife, and Natural Resources|pages=43–96|editor-last=Abate|editor-first=Randall S.|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/9781108647076.004|isbn=978-1-108-70322-2| s2cid=243276130 |access-date=2021-03-21|url-access=subscription}}
Several countries have tried enshrining obligations to future generations in law. In Wales, this moral obligation is encoded as a legal duty in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and in the role of the Future Generations Commissioner.{{cite web|url=https://futuregenerations.wales/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/150623-guide-to-the-fg-act-en.pdf|date=17 June 2015|title=Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 |access-date=31 May 2019}} The first commissioner Sophie Howe modeled the role, proposing a number of new policies designed for future-thinking policy in Wales, including a 2020 Manifesto for the Future.{{cite web|last1=Gregory|first1=Rhys|title=Major study into basic income and shorter week launched by Future Generations Commissioner|url=https://www.wales247.co.uk/major-study-into-basic-income-and-shorter-week-launched-by-future-generations-commissioner/|access-date=18 November 2020|website=Wales247|date=12 October 2020}} Similarly in Hungary the office of the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations was established in 2008.Futurepolicy.org, [https://www.futurepolicy.org/guardians/hungarian-parliamentary-commissioner/ Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201211083338/https://www.futurepolicy.org/guardians/hungarian-parliamentary-commissioner/ |date=2020-12-11 }}, accessed 21 September 2019 While in the United Kingdom, an informal cross-party parliamentary group has been established to discuss issues around future generations.
= Climate litigation =
{{Further|Climate change litigation}}
The rights of future generations are increasingly being protected in legal precedents as part of the global trends in climate litigation.{{Cite web|date=2018-04-13|title=Climate Change and Future Generations Lawsuit in Colombia: Key Excerpts from the Supreme Court's Decision|url=https://www.dejusticia.org/en/climate-change-and-future-generations-lawsuit-in-colombia-key-excerpts-from-the-supreme-courts-decision/|access-date=2021-03-21|website=Dejusticia|language=en-US}} Future generations were the defendant in the critical defendants in a 2018 case Future Generations v. Ministry of the Environment and Others in Colombia which protected the Amazon rainforest basin for future generations.
In popular culture
The rights of future generations were the inspiration for the principle plot device in Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future.{{Cite web|title=The Ministry for the Future, Green New Deal and CoViD-19 musings {{!}} KimStanleyRobinson.info|url=https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/content/ministry-future-green-new-deal-and-covid-19-musings|access-date=2021-03-21|website=www.kimstanleyrobinson.info}}
See also
{{Portal|Society}}