“The children are our future.
The world is not ours, the earth is not ours, It's a treasure we hold in trust for future generations… And I often hope we will be worthy of that trust.” -Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, quoted in Peter Swanson's Water: The Drop of Life, 2001

We all have a responsibility to ensure that future generations have access to the tools and resources which will ensure that they have a comfortable life that is able to provide all their material requirements and human rights.

There must be solidarity among generations. The Church tells us, “In the era of globalisation solidarity between generations must be forcefully emphasized:   In previous times there has always been concern for future generations. 

In the Caribbean we have heard of parents leaving land or a house for their children; there was concern for the wellbeing of their offspring.  There was a sense of responsibility for the future or at least the future of their children. 

The Compendium tells us “Formerly, in many places, solidarity between generations was a natural family attitude; it also became a duty of the community”.[758] It is good that such solidarity continue to be pursued within national political communities, but today the problem exists also for the global political community, in order that globalization will not occur at the expense of the neediest and the weakest.” 

There is however some concern about the well being of future generations in this age of golobalisation. There is a global concern that “our societies appear to be intent on immediate consumption rather than on investment for the future. We are piling up enormous debts and exploiting the natural environment in a manner which suggests that we have no real sense of any worthwhile future.

Just as a society which believes in the future saves in the present in order to invest in the future, so a society without belief spends everything now and piles up debts for future generations to settle. ‘Spend now and someone else will pay later’.”(Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 1989).

What is therefore required is “that global planning take place according to the principle of the universal destination of goods, which makes it morally illicit and economically counterproductive to burden future generations with the costs involved: morally illicit because it would mean avoiding one's own responsibilities; economically counterproductive because correcting failures is more expensive than preventing them.

This principle is to be applied above all — although not only — to the earth's resources and to safeguarding creation, the latter of which becomes a particularly delicate issue because of globalisation, involving as it does the entire planet understood as a single ecosystem.”

We must therefore consider the future in every decision that we make. This is particularly important for persons making policy and implementing decisions in governments and the private sector and for civil society organisations to advocate for consideration of future generations at all times. 

Here are some quotations to reinforce this principle:
• … the only possible guarantee of the future is responsible behavior in the present. -Wendell Berry, Living in the Future, The Unsettling of America, 1977
• We cannot interfere in one area of the ecosystem without paying due attention both to the consequences of such interference in other areas and to the well being of future generations. -Pope John Paul II, "The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility," US Catholic Conference, Washington, DC, 1990
• What does our generation owe to generations yet unborn? …there is an order in the universe which must be respected, and… the human person, endowed with the capability of choosing freely, has a grave responsibility to preserve this order for the well-being of future generations.  -Pope John Paul II, Address to the Vatican Symposium on the Environment, 1990
quoted in Ecology and Faith: The Writings of Pope John Paul II,

Next week we continue to look at the opportunities and risks of globalisation.  The focus will be international financial systems.

Persons interested in purchasing the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, may contact the Justice Desk, Archbishop’s House, 622-6680.