Episode Thirteen: What if governments factored future generations into law and policy?

Rob Hopkins

And so we reach our thirteenth episode. Wow. Thank you so much for being with us on this journey so far. We have an amazing episode for you today. We live in a world where so much political decision-making seems to be based on short-term thinking, the next opinion poll, next quarter, next election, yet so many of the problems we face are the result of our failing to think in the long term. We use the future as a place to dump the problems we can't resolve, to dump our pollution, carbon emissions, the thorny issues we'd rather avoid. Indigenous cultures and wiser civilisations of the past planned and thought with future generations in mind, so why can't we? And how different would the world be if we did? I am joined for this episode by Roman Krznaric, author of the recent book 'The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short Term World' and one of Britain’s leading popular philosophers, and also by Jane Davidson, author of '#futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country', Pro Vice-Chancellor Emeritus at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and former Minister for Environment and Sustainability in Wales where she proposed legislation to make sustainability the central organising principle of government - the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act. Our deep and far reaching conversation will hopefully give you a rich and delicious taste of how different the future would be if we lived in a world in which governments, organisations and indeed all of us, factored future generations into all of our decision making. Prepare your imagination for a good workout. As always, do let me know what you think....