Two Kings

In his book “Storms of My Grandchildren” Dr. James Hansen wrote about a conversation he had with television personality Larry King. Dr. Hansen told King about dangerous impacts bad environmental policies were having on the environment, threatening our futures. King dismissed Dr. Hansen’s concerns with this sound bite: “Nobody cares about fifty years from now.”

Crowd at the Washington Monument

King’s quip states a central problem confronting Dr. Hansen and other environmental advocates; people discount the future very heavily. We care less about what may happen a year from now than what is actually happening now, and we care less and less as the projected harm gets further into the future. We see the human discount mechanismin today’s international financial crises; over the years some European countries have borrowed to support consumption levels much higher than national incomes. Those countries now have difficulty paying their debts, and now lenders are reluctant to lend them more money. The government decisions at fault can be summarized as “Let’s consume what we can today and let the future take care of itself.”

I attended a lunch today honoring the memory of another King, Dr. Martin Luther King. It will soon be 50 years since Dr. King gave his passionate “I Have a Dream Speech,” and his words were always present at the lunch. While some may not care about what may happen in 50 years, Dr. King did, and other great leaders do. Abraham Lincoln, for one, had a vision of a United States that would continue to grow to greatness, and he refused all temptations to compromise and let the southern states go their own way. President Lincoln acted with total commitment and resolve even though many people hated his actions, and, as with Dr. King a century later, one of the haters shot him.

There were many inspiring words at the MLK lunch for environmentalists who sometimes see darkening clouds. I wrote down: “Everything is done by hope.” Avoid the “tranquilizing drug of gradualism.” “You judge each day by the seeds you plant, not by what you harvest.” “A life’s significance is the impact it has on others.” I was reminded of powerful words from another great leader who cared for the future, Winston Churchill. Shortly before his death at age 90, Churchill stood up, slowly, at a graduation ceremony and gave his commencement speech – “Never give up. Never, ever, ever give up” – and then sat down.

Dr. King, and  Winston Churchill, lived lives that rejected pessimism, apathy, and gradualism. We need to look clearly at what is happening to our environment and to hear what science tells us about threats to our beautiful, comfortable, nurturing world, then act to protect our world for us, and for those who will be here in 50 years, including Larry King’s descendants..