What Planet Do Our Children Deserve?

“Which one is worse, a planet that is too hot or a planet that is too cold?” My youngest son, who will be eight in May, posed this question to me. Clearly, he is concerned about the state of the world, and he is thinking about it. 

I had a discussion with him about how both an ice age and a very warm planet are bad for the human race. But his question encouraged me to reflect further on the responsibility of my generation to pass on a viable world to his generation. Our generation inherited a very special world. The culmination of the work of thousands of generations before us gave us an amazing inheritance of cultural, technological, and economic assets. It also gave a heavy legacy of social injustice, environmental pollution, and other existential challenges that we face. 

Our vast ambition, unbounded curiosity, and limitless yearning to know and to control both our destiny and the world around us fueled our civilisation. It drove discoveries, explorations, and inventions, and also triggered conflicts, wars and calamities. As we required more resources to satisfy our needs, our civilisation progressed further and became more materialistic. Humans increasingly viewed nature as a resource to be harnessed, tamed, and manipulated, rather than a living system to be treasured and treated with care. This approach was intertwined with - and enabled by - the scientific revolution and the industrial revolution. 

The levels of environmental pollution and social and economic injustice we face today are simply unsustainable. Even though billions of people are still living in poverty, with no access to running water, sanitation, healthcare, and/or adequate education, there is now an agreement between mainstream scientists that we are operating at one and half the carrying capacity of our planet! Failure to keep the global warming of our planet to below 1.5 Degrees is expected to have dire consequences for current and future generations. So, the need for change to use less resources to satisfy the requirements of even more people is more pressing than ever.   

This historic moment should be a moment of contemplation and introspection. But it is also a moment of urgent, collaborative, and comprehensive action. Getting ourselves out of the morass we are in requires reflection on the condition of the natural world, our systems and institutions, and the human condition simultaneously in a holistic and integrated manner. To fix the situation, we need to know to appreciate that we are an integral part of the world ecosystem. Goethe said: “Man knows himself only to the extent that he knows the world; he becomes aware of himself only within the world, and aware of the world only within himself.” Shaping a sustainable future will require a whole new level of mindset to enable unprecedented long term coordinated action plans, and the completely new ways of feeling, thinking, communicating, doing business, and collaborating that will be necessary to deliver those plans.  

So, what are we going to do to set our world on a journey towards becoming sustainable, just, and enjoyable? I can offer a few points of necessary action:

1.     Education system needs to evolve so that it does not only produce technically competent professionals, but also purpose-driven leaders who are able to deal with complexities and uncertainties of the future 

2.     A common taxonomy to account for the carbon and other environmental burdens that our activities and businesses cause. We need to educate engineers, architects, accountants, and actuaries to be fully fluent in the language and the methods of calculating carbon and other green gas emissions.

3.     Encouraging investment in green alternatives. Several large funds, including sovereign funds are seeing investing in sustainable business alternatives is not only the moral choice, but the smart business choice too.    

4.     Empowering our youth to have a bigger voice in guiding the development of their communities, especially when projects have long term environmental impact.

5.     Developing international institutions to be able to encourage collaboration and enforce agreements in matters related to climate change. 

Making decisions and choices that are good for the entire ecosystem and for future generations, and not only for our immediate needs and wants, is neither easy nor inevitable. It requires a general awakening of the society and more mature styles of leadership at all levels; individual, organisational, and societal. Despite this, I believe we owe this to our children, grandchildren and the grandchildren. We don’t want the planet too hot, or too cold. Don’t you agree?