How to be a good ancestor

- It's time for humankind to
recognize a disturbing truth,

we have colonized the future.

In wealthy countries, especially,

we treat it like a
distant colonial outpost

where we can freely dump ecological damage

and technological risk as
if there was nobody there.

The tragedy is that tomorrow's
generations aren't here

to challenge this pillaging
of their inheritance.

They can't leap in front

of the king's horse like a suffragette

or stage a sit-in like
a civil rights activist

or go on a Salt March to defy

their colonial oppressors
like Mahatma Gandhi.

They're granted no political
rights or representation,

they have no influence in the marketplace.

The great silent majority
of future generations

is rendered powerless.

It could be hard to grasp
the scale of this injustice,

so look at it this way,

there are 7.7 billion people alive today.

That's just a tiny
fraction of the estimated

100 billion people who have lived

and died over the past 50,000 years.

But both of these are vastly outnumbered

by the nearly seven trillion people

who will be born over the 50,000 years

assuming current birth rates stabilize.

In the next two centuries alone,

tens of billions of people will be born,

amongst them, all your grandchildren

and their grandchildren and the friends

and communities on whom they'll depend.

How will all these future
generations look back on us

and the legacy we're leaving for them?

We've clearly inherited
extraordinarily legacies

from our common ancestors.

The gift of the agricultural revolution,

medical discoveries and the
cities we still live in.

But we've certainly inherited
destructive legacies too.

Legacies of slavery and colonialism

and racism creating deep inequities

that must now be repaired.

Legacies of economies
that are structurally

addicted to fossil fuels

and endless growth that
must now be transformed.

So how can we become the good ancestors

that future generations deserve?

Well, over the past decade,

a global movement has started to emerge

of people committed to
decolonizing the future

and extending our time
horizons towards a longer now.

This movement is still fragment
and as yet has no name.

I think of its pioneers as time rebels.

They can be found at work

in Japan's visionary
future design movement,

which aims to overcome
the short-term cycles

that dominate politic by
drawing on the principle

of 7th generation
decision making practiced

by many Native Americans communities.

Future Design gathers
together residents to draw up

and discuss plans for the towns

and cities where they live.

Half the group are told they're residents

from the present day.

The other half are given
ceremonial robes to wear

and told to imagine themselves

as residents from the year 2060.

Well, I turns out that the residents

from 2060 systematically advocate

far more transformative city plans,

from healthcare investments

to climate change action.

And this innovative form
of future citizens assembly

is now spreading throughout
Japan from small towns

like Yahaba to major cities like Kyoto.

What is future design was adopted by towns

and cities worldwide to revitalize

democratic decision making

and extend their vision
far beyond the now?

Time rebels have also
taken to courts of law

to secure the rights of future people.

The organization, Our Children's Trust,

just filed a landmark case
against the US Government

on behalf of 21 young people campaigning

for the legal right for a safe climate

and healthy atmosphere for both current

and future generations.

Their David versus Goliath struggle

has already inspired
groundbreaking lawsuits

worldwide from Colombia

and Pakistan to Uganda
and the Netherlands.

And this wave of activism
is growing alongside

the movement to grant
legal personhood to nature,

from the Whanganui River
in out in New Zealand

to the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers in India.

Time rebels are taking
action at the ballot box too.

In 2019, teenagers across Europe

began lobbying their parents

and grandparents to give them their votes

in the European parliamentary
elections of that year.

The hashtag, #givethekidsyourvote,

went viral on social media

and was spread by climate
campaigners as far as Australia.

My partner and I heard about it

and decided to five our vote in the last

UK general election to
our 11-year-old twins.

So we all sat around the kitchen table

and debated the party manifestos,

and they then each told us where to put

the X on the ballot sheet.

And in case you're wondering,

no, they didn't simply mirror

their parents' political opinions.

So the time rebellion has begun.

The rebels are rising to decolonize

the future founding a global
movement for long-term thinking

and intergenerational
justice that may turn out

to be one of the most powerful

political movements of this century.

They're helping us escape

the short-term cycles
that digital distraction

and consumer culture trap us in

with the lure of the Buy
Now button and 24/7 news.

They inspire us to extend our
time horizons from seconds

and minutes to decades and far beyond.

The artist Katie Paterson's
project, Future Library,

will be a century in the making.

Every year, a famous writer donates a book

which will remain
completely unread until 2114

when the whole collection
will be printed on paper

made from a forest of trees
planted for this very purpose.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault

sets its vision even further,

housing millions of seeds
in an indestructible

rock bunker in the Arctic Circle

that's designed to last a thousand years.

But how can we really think

and plan on the scale of millennia?

Well, the answer is perhaps

the ultimate secret to being a time rebel,

and it comes from the biomimicry
designer, Janine Benyus,

who suggested we learn

from nature's 3.8 billion
years of evolution.

How is it that other species
have learned to survive

and thrive for 10,000 generations or more?

We'll, it's by taking care of the place

that will take care of their offspring,

by living within the ecosystem
in which they're embedded,

by knowing not to foul the nest

which is what humans have been doing

with devastating effects
at an ever increasing pace

and scale over the past century.

So a profound starting point
for time rebels everywhere

is to focus not simply on lengthening time

but on regenerating place.

We must restore and repair

and care of the planetary home

that will take care of tour offspring.

For our children and
our children's children,

and al those yet to come,

we must fall in love with
rivers and mountains,

with ice sheets and savannas,

and reconnect with the long

and life giving cycles of nature.

Let us all become time rebels

and be inspired by the beautiful

Mohawk lesson spoken when a child is born,

"Thank you, Earth,

you know the way."