Captain Future's Log

The Difference

There are many cases like this, that exemplify the difference between a true commitment to the future and a criminal, immoral disregard for it: the continuing attempts to drill for oil in the last bit of coastal wilderness in Alaska, the relentless and often illegal logging of the last forests, and so on. But there is one that defines the difference in almost mythic terms. However, for all its poetic power, it is is a clear and present danger.

It is the difference between water and gold in a mountain range between Argentina and Chile. A corporation with powerful participants (including the Bush family) seeks to mine gold under glaciers that are the source of pure water. Mining gold is a dirty, wasteful and polluting process, and in addition to probably destroying the glaciers, two rivers are likely to be poisoned.

There is not even an economic advantage to the local people. This is all about short-term benefit for already rich foreigners, and probably government officials and other companies.

There are several sets of issues here that define care for the future. The first is the future-oriented attitude, the "consider the seventh generation to come" point of view, that can easily see how much more important water is in the long run, and how important it is likely to be in an era of global heating and over-pollution.

There is the future consciousness that is informed by the past and the present, by the realities and cycles of life. Water is necessary for life. Gold is not.

And there is the future ethic that values making prudent provisions for future generations, and for all of life, and the health of the earth itself. These are virtues greater than the greed and selfishness of individuals out for gold for themselves. Greed and selfishness are about the few in the present. Future ethics are about the many individuals--and the great unity of life and time--in the time to come as well as the present.