[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Intergenerational equity is a concept which says that humans hold the natural and cultural environment of the Earth, in common both with other members of the present generation and with other generations, past and future. It essentially means that we inherit the Earth from previous generations and have an obligation to pass it on in reasonable condition to future generations.
Imagine a scenario where a man is born in 1947, the oceans and food chain were free of plastic and the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), a heat-trapping greenhouse gas in our atmosphere was 310 parts per million (ppm). At 37 years of age, the man and his partner have a daughter in the year 1984 by which time the oceans were being impacted by plastics on a limited scale and the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere had risen to 345 ppm. When the man is 71 years of age, his daughter gives birth to a baby girl in the year 2018 and he becomes a grandparent. There is now so much plastic in our oceans and in the food chain that nobody can put accurate numbers on these problems.
What we do know is that about 8 million metric tons of plastic ends up in our oceans every year and that the concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere has reached 409 ppm. Scientists estimate that by the year 2050, there will be more plastic in our oceans (by weight) than fish. The scientifically proven increases in the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere since 2002 alone is demonstrated in the time lapse video below. Environmental problems such as these are continuing to accelerate and if we take 1947 as the baseline year, then intergenerational equity currently sounds like a pipe-dream.
It is often rightly suggested that life was a lot harder “back in the day”, people didn’t have all of the conveniences of the modern world and that there was a lot more hunger and hardship in days gone by. It is undoubtedly true that living standards have increased across most of the world since 1947 when many people did not have running water, electricity and children may have walked to school without shoes on their feet. Such hardships would have been relatively unheard of in the developed world by 1984 and it is likely that a parent would be in hot water with social services if their child was living is these conditions in 2018. However, the very valid argument that times were indeed tougher “back in the day” is not the point of intergenerational equity. The cost of continuous progress has come at a very heavy price on the environment and the first thing that we can all do is to at least acknowledge and be aware of this reality.
When we as individuals become aware of how we are changing our world, then we can find ways to reduce our impacts. You could start off with some small steps, for example, only using reusable shopping bags, water bottles/coffee cups, getting into the habit of turning off light switches, consider the environment in your voting decisions, eating less meat (especially red meat) and using public transport or cycling more often. These are the quick and easy wins of which there are so many if we think about how we live. You don’t have to purchase solar panels for your home or a high end Tesla car to be more environmentally conscious. However, if you do start to slowly form environmentally conscious habits, then maybe the next time that you do buy a new or used car then you might consider its fuel consumption performance in your decision, this could also be good for your wallet in the long term. You might even take the big leap and buy an electric vehicle (EV) or a plug in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). Over time, these simple habits or ways of thinking can start to become so routine until you reach a point that you no longer even realise that you’re thinking in this way.
Now then, back to the question of “should we care about intergenerational equity?”. Well, if you don’t care about intergenerational equity, then you don’t care about the world that you will leave behind. If that’s the case, then you don’t care about your children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews or any part of the world that you have had the privilege to live in. As a result, it’s probably fair to assume that the vast majority of people do in fact care about intergenerational equity and that maybe we should all try harder to think of ways of leaving this place as we found it, or better.
Data source: Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS).
Credit: NASA
https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/
https://www.marineconservation.org.au/pages/ocean-plastic-pollution.html
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