wise use of mires and peatlands - Peatland Ecology Research Group

106 VALUES AND CONFLICTS: WHERE DIFFERENT VALUES MEET4.7 CONFLICTS DEALING WITHPRIORITIES 49Intergenerational justice: Since theBrundlandt Report 50 , intergenerational justice,i.e. a balance between the well-being ofpresent-day and future generations, is acentral point of concern to the globalcommunity. Sustainability is based on twopremises:● the present generation is morally obligedto abstain from exploiting the Earth’sresources to the detriment of futuregenerations. Rather, it must shareresources with future human beings so thatthey are allowed to have a standard of lifenot substantially lower than that enjoyedtoday;● it is possible to define the needs of futuregenerations in order to take practical stepsfor the achievement of sustainability.Duties towards these future generationsmust not only be expressed in principle,but also in concrete terms. What are weobliged to do, from what else are we obligedto abstain? 51The first point is not seriously contested.Some may believe that it is unnecessary tocare for future needs, either because theEarth’s resources are sufficiently abundantor because science, technology, and themarket will automatically provide for futureresource availability 52 . But almost nobodywill argue that it is morally permitted toseriously damage the prospects of futuregenerations 53 . The second point is morecontroversial. Agnostics hold that nobodyknows the needs of the future 54 . Theysubstantiate this by pointing to the past,where many economic decisions “for the sakeof future generations” have been provenwrong. Others argue that the fundamentalphysical and social needs of the humanspecies will not change. “Of course, we don’tknow what the precise tastes of our remotedescendants will be, but they are unlikely toinclude a desire for skin cancer, soil erosion,or the inundation of low-lying areas as a resultof the melting of the ice-caps” 55 . Again othersstate that the concerns of the presentgeneration should not be for the physicalpreconditions 56 for the well-being of futuregenerations, but the well-being itself 57 . Evenwhen some resources are irreversibly lost,cannot the life of future generations be fullysatisfactory without them?Different concepts of sustainability 58 : Thesedeliberations reflect two different conceptsof sustainability 59 :● weak sustainability permits the depletionof natural resources if natural or artificialsubstitutes can be found and if the profitsare invested rationally. If, for example, theeconomic benefits of peat extraction areinvested in infrastructure, humanknowledge, technologies, and other capital,the well-being of future generations maybe greater even if this should include theglobal extinction of some mire species;● strong sustainability casts doubts onthese substitutability premises and arguesfor keeping the stock of different types ofresources intact separately. Natural andartificial capital are seen ascomplementary. 60The position of strong sustainability cannotbe held indiscriminately for every type ofresource. The present generation cannot takecare of every detail that may be relevant tofuture generations. It is not realistic for thepresent generation to concern itself with thewhole range of problems its descendants maycome across during their lifetimes. What canbe done is to ensure that options are keptopen and that they have available to themopportunities, chances which they can seize.The present generation should also doeverything possible to avert serious evil inwhich its actions might result.Discounting 61 : In a world with perpetualeconomic growth in which present-day andfuture values are weighted equally, the aim of