Sustainable Development and Future Generations

This paper argues, mainly on thebasis of Rawls's savings principle,Wissenburg's restraint principle, Passmore'schains of love, and De-Shalit'stransgenerational communities, for a doubleinterpretation of sustainable development as aprinciple of intergenerational justice and afuture-oriented green ideal. This doubleinterpretation (1) embraces the restraintprinciple and the argument that no individualcan claim an unconditional right to destroyenvironmental goods as a baseline that couldjustify directive strategies for governmentintervention in non-sustainable lifestyles, and(2) suggests that people's concerns about thedeterioration of nature and the environmentarticulate future-oriented narratives ofself-identity that could fuel non-directivestrategies to develop further responsibilitiestowards nearby future generations. Sustainabledevelopment, thus, provides sound arguments torestrict people's freedom to follow their ownlifestyles, when these lifestyles transgressedthe baseline of the restraint principle.However, the individual freedom of choiceshould not be restricted for any furtherenvironmental considerations. Non-directivestrategies are thus to stimulate thedevelopment of such further responsibilitiestowards nearby future generations.