The Iroquois, who had a lot of influence over the way our founding fathers set up the U.S. government, (however, not enough in my opinion), tended to make decision in terms of how it might affect them seven generations down the road. In recent times the closest we cone to this is "environmental impact studies". Of course that is a relatively recent thing though. Most ctions taken in the U.S. have been interms of gaining immediate profits with no regard to how it will affect future generations.

I think if hte human species is to survie and not end up in some futuristic wasteland as depicted by many science fiction writers, we need to adapt a more long term view in terms of how our actions today affect future generations more than two hundred years from now.

The problem is that there are way too many people who simply don't care wha tthigns will be like when they themselves are no longer around. Their selfishness today may lead to hyuman extinction down the road.

The question is, do we want to build a better future and maintain a healthy planet as a place to live, or do we want to create one of those horrific futures tht so many science fiction writers have envisioned and perhps end up with a total extinction of human altogether?

I live in a housing complex inside a park. All appliances have to be 5 star. Heating is from the waste steam from a nearby natural gas electric plant. Heating and cooling per person is maybe 10% of the national average. We have three nearby regular farmers' markets, including one inside our park. Many people here walk to work, I commute by bike as do many others. We also have a subway stop and five bus stops. We do composting and textile recycling. None of this is hardship, by the way. We have a rent stabilized lease, but new people pay crazy stupid money to live here. If everyone lived like this, there would be no global warming or resource wars.