Essay: Write an essay consisting of 150-300 words. 20 points. A.1. The title is "" My Own Way of Conserving the Environment for the Future Generation""
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Answer:
Explanation:
Quality of life for the world’s children in 2050 depends on our decisions today. The need for change in human development for them to lead happy lives has been debated for decades. The sustainability discourse started in the 1970s, and the 1992 UN Conference on the Environment and Development recognized intergenerational equity as central for policymaking that safeguards the future—this principle is now found in the constitutions of many countries. Its implementation through binding policy-making, however, is rare. One of the reasons for this may be the structural short-term nature of representative democracies. The World Commission on Environment and Development writes, “We borrow enviro-nmental capital from future generations with no intention or prospect of repaying. . . . We act as we do because we can get away with it: future generations do not vote; they have no political or financial power; they cannot challenge our decisions.”
Some countries, most notably Israel and Hungary, have confronted this institutional shortcoming head on. Each created its own guardian or commissioner for future generations, independent voices for the long term that act as temporal checks and balances. Based on the human right to a healthy environment (Hungary) and on a basic law concerning sustainable development (Israel), the commissioners in each country have unrestrained access to the information behind policymaking; they respond to citizens’ concerns; and they publicly expose the long-term implications of current decisions. Hungarians even have the right to take complaints about particular development projects and policies to court.
Such guardians for future generations can protect any constitutional right or binding policy goal for the long term. New Zealand has a Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment that is referred to as the Guardian of the Long View, and in the European Union, a civil-society coalition has based its emerging campaign on the overarching aim of the Lisbon Treaty (similar to an EU constitution) to secure “the well-being of its [the EU’s] people.” Surely, this has to include the well-being of future citizens.