Introduction

Yesterday Donald Trump was reinstalled as the President of the United States of America and there are dystopian consequences for the world today and the world our children and grandchildren will inherit.

We weren’t meeting the challenges with decarbonising our energy sector before Trump returned, now with his “drill, baby, drill” mantra and opposition to tackling climate change we face all of the worse impact projections in a far shorter timescale.

Whatever social justice advances the USA has made in the past 50 years now seem to be on the verge of regression, the demand amongst the populist driven political class will be to follow that path.

Meeting this challenge means not following the apocalyptic path being trod by the Trump world with the focus on greater and greater wealth being funnelled into the accounts of a smaller and smaller number of people. Instead we must chart a new path, a path where the greater good is measured not in the wealth of a few but in the well-being of the many. A path where selflessness replaces selfishness.

What if we thought of societal development less in terms of what we gain for ourselves but more in terms of what changes would benefit future generations? What if, by our actions, we prepared stronger foundations upon which our children and grandchildren will build the society they develop? What if by giving a little, changing a little, investing a little we made their lives easier when faced with the challenges they will face? Wouldn’t that be worth doing, wouldn’t that be worth talking about.

There are many challenges facing us now or coming in the future for the next generations to address which can be alleviated by action now. Actions however have a demand for resources which are not always available. We do not have the finances to make all of the changes we want to, we do not have the manpower across many sectors to implement the changes needed and we do not always have the time to see the ultimate results of our actions.

None of these mean we should do nothing, instead our actions should be driven by implementing those changes which have the greatest impact in the shortest time at the lowest cost. Delaying anything, construction, treatment, learning or transformation means higher costs and less impact over a far longer time period.

What follows are a series of suggestions, actions that mean change, change that is not focussed simply on today’s needs but the needs of future generations