Law Commons^™

Environmental Ethics And Our Moral Relationship To Future Generations: Future Rights And Present Virtue, Jeffrey M. Gaba

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

A central issue in environmental ethics is characterization of our “moral relationship” to future generations. What, if any, obligations do we owe to the future? How should our present actions be influenced by their impact on the future?

The purpose of this article is to characterize and hopefully clarify certain aspects of this “moral relationship.” First, the article identifies those distinctive qualities that distinguish a moral analysis of our relationship to future generations from the moral analysis that will apply to an assessment of our actions on our own generation. It suggests that the issue of our moral relationship to …