If our focus is on the very short time
scale economic actions, and not on weighing the impacts of our actions within
the context of the impact on our environment, then we are effectively working
towards the shortening of our existence as a species.
If preservation of our
species is the ultimate collective goal then we must have nothing less than
universal unalienable environmental rights established in 100% of global
jurisdictions. The right to a clean and healthy environment must forever be the
most fundamental principle of society. The common denominator is the human
time-scale, therefore the shortest length of time we must weigh our environmental
and economic impacts upon, are no less than one human generation.
A more risk
averse and less potentially catastrophic set of economic and geo-political plans would be based on a period of
centuries or millennial periods of time. Unfortunately our species seems to have tremendous difficulty thinking beyond the human generation time frame.
