Capitalism is destroying the Earth. We need a new human right for future generations. The young people taking to the streetsfor the climate strike are right: their future is being stolen.
The economy is an environmental pyramid scheme, dumping its liabilities on the young and the unborn. Its current growth depends on intergenerational theft. Climate litigation needs to become a mass movement. Things are not going well for the Earth.
It goes well beyond the Trump administration’s decision to eventually leave the Paris Agreement and Scott Pruitt’s purge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific experts. Even non-American efforts to curb climate change aren’t going so well: Newly released data from the World Meteorological Organization reveal a record increase in average global concentrations of CO2 between 2015 and 2016. The United Nations Environment Programme recently issued its annual synthesis report on the emissions gap, which is the difference between country-specific plans and reductions suggested by scientific consensus. One of the salient findings is that domestic carbon-reduction policies for the 168 countries that have ratified the Paris Agreement amount to just one-third of what is necessary to limit global temperature rise to the Paris boundary of “well below 2 degrees Celsius.” Climate litigation in other countries, however, tells a different story.
Why are the baby boomers desperate to make millennials hate ourselves? Back in 1999 Chris Sidoti, then-head of the Australian Human Rights Commission, called the baby boomers “the most selfish generation in history”.
“I don’t think there’s been a generation like this that has been so unwilling to pay a fair share of taxation,” he said. This week the Pew Research Centre released a report showing that just 24% of millennials, defined as those born between 1981 and 1997, considered themselves responsible, compared to 66% of boomers. This pattern is repeated across a number of self-reported virtues: 27% of millennials consider their generation self-reliant, just 17% consider themselves moral, and 29% think we’re compassionate. For baby boomers, those figures are much higher: 51%, 46% and 47%.
Stagnation & intergenerational justice. The juxtaposition of David Cameron's claim that we have a "fundamental duty" to care for pensioners with the FT's story that 20-somethings have low incomes after housing costs reminds us that intergenerational justice is now a big issue.
But I wonder: is this partly a product of secular stagnation? To see my point, consider a reasonably typical exchange between a youngster and oldster: Oldie: You guys are lucky. You have smartphones, tinder, spotify and free books and music - and less sexism, racism and homophobia than in my day.Youngster: But I can't afford anywhere to live. Should future generations be forced to deal with our nuclear legacy? The first post-human structure, is what they call it.
Onkalo, a vast underground storage facility 300 km northwest of Helsinki, will take Finland's most radioactive nuclear waste and quite literally lock it away forever. Once it is full, rather than covering it in warning signs the engineers behind its construction plan to remove every surface trace of the underground facility. It will be left looking no different from its surroundings - a mostly tree-laden wilderness.
Intergenerational Justice in Scandinavia: Super Model? Click to download the report Today’s post is by Mi Ah Schoyen of NOVA Norwegian Social Research and Bjorn Hvinden Professor and Head of Research at NOVA and the University of Tromso, and director of the Nordic Centre of Excellence ‘Reassessing the Nordic Welfare Model’ (REASSESS).
It is published in collaboration with Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI) Network When it comes to balancing the needs of current and future generations, the Nordic welfare states have done fairly well: reforms of the pension system, low child poverty levels and public debt, and work-friendly family policies. Yet, environmental considerations remain neglected – in the Nordic countries and elsewhere in the OECD. Few would disagree that intergenerational justice is a goal that all governments and societies should adhere to. In advanced democracies, intergenerational justice is only one of the objectives public policies are expected to meet.
Click to see full size Useful links. The Right Social Policies Can Promote Intergenerational Ethics. Home > Ideas > Innovations.
Intergenerational Justice. 1.
How Intergenerational Relations Differ from Relations Among Contemporaries It may seem that considerations of justice do not apply to intergenerational relations, because there is a lack of reciprocity between generations of people who are not contemporaries. Among non-contemporaries, there is no mutual cooperation and there are no exchanges in kind. This fact about the relations between present and remote past or future generations is closely related to a second feature of intergenerational relations: the permanent asymmetry in power-relation between living people and those who will live in the future. First, present generations may be said to exercise power over (remote) future generations when, for example, they create conditions that make it costly for future generations to decide against continuing to pursue present generations' projects.
Teens Sue Government for Failing to Address Climate Change for Future Generations. iMatter youth march.
The iMatter campaign, an initiative of Kids vs. Global Warming and Our Children’s Trust, is composed of young people driving change. Generational Theft: How Entitlement Spending is Stealing Opportunity from America's Youth. Sorry, Kids. We Ate It All. Dear Future Generations: Sorry. TRUST Colorado: 11 year-old Xiuhtezcatl Shows Us the Effects of Climate Change to His Community. Www.oecd.org/els/public-pensions/47711990.pdf. RYSE - Rising Youth For a Sustainable Earth. If you're under 30, bad luck. You're screwed.
Climate Silence NOW! - Home. The Declaration Of Interdependence And Jefferson’s ‘Brilliant Statement Of Intergenerational Equity' Why we need intergenerational politics. Shutterstock / Monkey Business Images Anyone who disputes Labour cost of living concerns only need to read the latest report from the government's social mobility tsar.
Futureself. FutureVoices. Listen to your futures. Postcards From The Future Show What London Will Look Like After Climate Change. Trailer! FutureCoast: THE EXHIBIT. The Intergenerational Foundation. Www.greenhousethinktank.org/files/greenhouse/home/Guardians_inside_final.pdf.