Draft: Intergenerational Justice prezi

Background & Motivation

The impact of consummatory behaviors on future generations

The objectives of this presentation

Does Intergenerational Justice require that we abandon consumerism?

• In 2011 more than 1 billion people went hungry (aprox. 50.000 deaths per day are due to poverty-related causes.)
• In contrast to the large segment of humankind that is living in extreme poverty, there is a large segment living in great affluence.
• According to Thomas Pogge it would cost only “around one percent of the disposable incomes of the most affluent tenth of humankind” to eradicate severe poverty and hunger.

• To talk about over consumption of resources as a main negative factor in the world degradation unjust to the future generations.
• To analyze the issue of consumerism which is raising conflicts between our concern for global justice and the well-being of future generations.
• To encourage the ethical behavior of human beings towards the sustainable development of the future.

• The unintended impacts of human actions are now creating problems like global warming and the extinction of multitudes of species, problems which raise ethical issues about how we should live our lives and organize our societies, and which present challenges never encountered by previous generations.

International Conference Global Justice: Norms and Limits

Bucharest, 10 - 12 May, 2012

Lavinia - Ioana Udrea

M.A. in Applied Ethics

Consumerism & future people(1)

The responsibility of humans for “future children”

Consumerism & future people(2)

Now-a-days globalization and the consummatory behavior

How should we pay to protect future generations from the effects of global injustice?

• The concept of intergenerational justice can be defined in a very simple way:

"to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

• The question “Does Global Justice Require that We Abandon Consumerism?” arises in the context of justice because of our difficulty to accept/ understand that we really have obligations of justice toward members of future generations.

• Next generations may come to exist depending on our present actions, which can affect future persons in the same way that they affect present persons.
• Our choices can influence the life of future generations in a variety of different ways, for example: to lose their benefits they might have enjoyed, or worse, to inhered problems and disadvantages of the past generations, etc.

• Globalization promotes global access to ideas and cultural integration, but embodies the threat of the global growth of the power of transnational corporations and of international agencies that serve their interests.

• In the process, constructions of collective identities have tended to become more multidimensional, fluid and uncertain.

Humans` first step should begin with the concerning about a not-yet-existent “thing”, therefore, our responsibility for a future ecological planet.

Hans Jonas affirms that “the claim for existence begins only with existence”.

He formulated a new and distinctive supreme principle of morality:

"Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life".

Robin Attfield explains that:

“environmental responsibilities cannot entirely be based on human interests, even when future interests are fully taken into account (because environmental injustices in the present affect our responsibilities with regard to the future), but in the same time, on future interests that should be represented in present decision-making.”

Does Global Justice Require that We Abandon Consumerism?

In need of global justice(2)

Duties to the Future

In need of global justice(1)

• We have to analyze the concept of ”future people” in a different way; we need to think about the transactions and relations between successive generations.
• Relations between the generations affect relations between generations living at different times, including future generations, whose numbers, quality of life and very existence depend, in part, on current decisions and policies.

• The global community should be aware of worldwide loyalties and responsibilities (and have an implicit recognition of a global justice), and be concern for issues such as the global environment and improve global governance.
• In this context, global justice becomes a global ethic of the kind in which obligations do not stop at national boundaries and are not grounded in any particular interest.

• Yes.

Hans Jonas considers that to preserve the integrity of human beings essence which implies his natural environment and moreover, to save this world from the dangers of this times (from problems crated mostly by our own negative behavior) – is not an utopian goal, but a task of responsibility for the future of man on earth.

• It has been suggested by Barnabas Dickson that in modern society the relation between individuals and the natural environment considerably reduces people’s sense of responsibility because of their consumptive actions.
• In order to change our unethical behavior and fight for global justice, we have to accept that it will be a future mankind and then to realize that we are responsible for their condition, for the quality of their life.

My future work in environmental ethics

No education for Moral Responsibility

In conclusion, what are our next steps:

Global justice & moral education

Global Justice connected to people

• Discovering the long-term motivation and teach people how to act morally is a way of better prepare and inspire every generation to do right by nature.
• Moreover, I my future work I will discuss those solutions that can provide a balance between collective interests and the specific problems of the environment.

• Teaching moral responsibility towards nature is largely neglected when referring to human well-being.
• Human beings don`t have any trained skill for translating environmental knowledge into specific actions and don`t develop their global consciousness.

- The concept of Global justice needs to be connected to people's daily lives, to be grounded, relevant and able to stimulate practical positive human action.

• This initiative should be human-centered; in order to make people understand the consequences of their actions regarding nature and to develop transgenerational appreciation for human kind and the unique roles that everyone of us play in ecosystems.

• To understand how consumerism affects the well-being of human beings and to analyze the different meanings of global justice in our own contexts;
• To reflect on central problems related to both concepts, such as severe poverty, environmental pollution, the so-called ‘clash of cultures’ etc.;
• To train human beings to develop skills for translating global justice knowledge into specific actions and rise their moral consciousness.

• In the diversity of global cultures, there are born conflicts of values because of the different perspectives of justice valuation.
• People manifest no interest for next generations and don`t take into account the consequences of their actions that don’t guarantee a global justice for present and future people.

Thank you for your attention !