First David Brooks, then Tyler Cowen and now Francesca Rheannon got me thinking this week about posterity and legacy and why they matter so much. Francesca, who is our guest blogger today, is a contributing writer at CSR Wire (where this originally ran) and a host and co-director of SeaChange Radio, an excellent over-the-air and Internet-distributed series of conversations about sustainability. I’m a regular listener on iTunes, and part of SeaChange’s advisory board.
Americans are inconsistent when it comes to long-term thinking. As individuals, we are able to plan for the future–we save for our kids’ college education, or our own retirement. But in business, people often focus on the next deal, the next headline or the next quarter at the expense of the future. I’ve found that when I’m facing an important decision, or even a trivial one (“Should go out for a muffin or a run?), thinking long-term points me towards an answer. “Thinking past ourselves” is the way Francesca puts it.
When my granddaughter starts kindergarten this September, she’ll be going to PS 11, a public school set in the heart of a predominantly African-American community in Brooklyn, NY.
Francesca Rheannon
The school has pledged itself to a sustainable future for children. The day I visited, enormous, colorful cutouts of animals and sea creatures festooned the halls. It turns out the displays were part of the school partnership with Amnesty International, which guides every grade in adopting a cause. The early grades chose the environment: preserving the rain forest, keeping the planet’s waters clean, and saving animals from extinction. The connection between human rights and the right to a healthy environment for all living beings was implicit. The kids also get the connection between a healthy environment and personal health: they grow vegetables together in the community garden next door to the school. All these activities show the core of the school’s philosophy: “the importance of children thinking past themselves,” in the words of the school’s principal. It seems to me to be the core concept of sustainability, as well. [click to continue…]
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In Washington, it’s a popular climate conundrum everyone talks about: Even if the U.S. lowers its greenhouse gas emissions, China and India are on track to dwarf the entire Western World’s as they build enormous coal-fired power plants. Politicians regularly say we must get China and India to use less coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels, to power their emerging economies.
