Our Duty to Those Yet to Come

There is a conversation I had a number of years back that I still think of often. It was with my boss at the time, John, who was originally born in Denmark. We were talking about building permits for a reason I don’t quite recall, but John told me that one of the main differences he had found between building a structure in Canada as compared to Denmark, was that here we tend to take a very short-sighted approach to new construction. In Canada, you build according to what you need now, best as you can afford. However, in Denmark, the approach tends to be more long-sighted. If you want to have a better chance of getting your building plans greenlit, you had to show how what you were putting up would be useful not only to you, but also to those who will come after you for the next century or so as well.

While this is a mindset that took me a while to wrap my head around, given the differences between our two countries, this approach that the Danes took makes sense. Canada has a lot of land that is undeveloped, and while our true history goes back into the mists of time, our recorded history caps out at around 500 years. Denmark, on the other hand, has comparatively little undeveloped land left after all these years, and if you wanted to go back to the beginning of their recorded history, 500 years wouldn’t even have you scratching the surface.

Denmark has had to deal with the problems of one generation’s decisions impacting their descendants for much longer than we settler Canadians have. And so, as John explained it to me, the Danes have come to the conclusion that by making a policy of keeping the future citizens in mind when long-term decisions are made, be they born already or not, a lot of headaches and hardships and stressors between the generations can be prevented before they even begin.

I think there is a lot of wisdom in this approach. We Canadians (North Americans, really) are not all that great at keeping the future of our country in mind when we make decisions. When we think about making our “long-term plans,” usually that doesn’t look more than 4 years down the road, to say nothing about multiple generations. Yet we make decisions all the time that will have a strong impact on our children, and possibly an even stronger one on those that will come after them.

Perhaps nowhere is this easier to see than in the environment around us. There isn’t much of a debate anymore as to whether human-caused climate change is real. A meta-study (that is a study that compiles the findings of other studies) that came out in 2019 found that 97% of all scientists in applicable fields agreed that climate change is real. At this point, even fossil fuel companies, the corporations that have the most to gain from climate change denial, have also largely come out in agreement that this climate change is a problem that needs to be addressed. I do not pretend to be a climate scientist myself and so I recognize that any beliefs I have on the matter do ultimately rest on the words of others, but for my bet, if 97% of the people whose life work it is to be in the know, as well as the people who have the most vested interest in proving them wrong all find themselves on the same page on this matter, I think that is the most likely place for the truth to be found.

And saying that, being a pastor, I do know a thing or two about what is contained in my Bible. Enough to know that you have to do some pretty elaborate theological gymnastics to argue that Scripture does not tell us that we as Christians need to care for all creation around us. This is made clear already on the first page of Genesis where we are told that we are to be good stewards of God’s creation, to rule over it in the name of the Lord who made all and said it was good. I cannot help but think this is a task that we have come up short on, given that there are more Christians in the world today than ever before, and yet besides even the damage caused by climate change, there is also mass deforestation, extinctions of whole species happening at a rate before thought impossible, and entire eco-systems being destroyed simply to pave paradise and put up a parking lot as the ballad goes.

At the rate things are going, what of creation will be left for our children to enjoy for themselves, let alone those who come after?

Perhaps there is wisdom in the Danish approach I remember talking to my old boss about all those years ago. There are complexities when it comes to any discussion around how to address climate change or any other environmental need. Often we hear of how all climate inaction is simply due to the selfish rich looking out for their bottom lines. However, living rurally that caricature often seems rather thin, at least around here. Livelihoods are on the line in the here and now. Margins between being profitable and bankrupt are razor thin for many farmers for whom the outcome of these decisions around climate change have a profound impact. It is not as simple as just saying we need to change everything about what we are doing immediately. As Christians, we also have the duty to care for our fellow man to take into account. A duty that our decisions and attitudes surrounding this topic impact immensely.

But these needs of the here and now, as great and legitimate as many of them are, must also be balanced against the needs of those who are yet to come. Those who will live with the impact of the choices that we make today for much longer than we will. While the livelihood of this generation will impact the one to come, all signs also point to the longer we take to get emissions under control the more difficult and hostile a world we leave for our descendants to inhabit. And so as we struggle to address this problem before us, a problem I truly believe we can and will tackle and even already are in many exciting ways, we must not forget to think of what we want the world that we will leave to our descendants to be.