Climate Corner: Reconciling the past with the future

This isn’t about assigning blame to previous generations. They operated with the knowledge available at the time.

But accountability is distinct from blame. While blame looks backward to find fault, accountability looks forward to creating solutions.

When we recognize that our prosperity was built, in part, on carbon emissions (the cost of which we are now paying), we gain an opportunity — not to dwell on guilt, but to pay it forward.

The donor I spoke with has spent years doing exactly that. Through his involvement with Climate Curve, he has chosen to invest in climate entrepreneurs developing today’s solutions instead of dwelling on yesterday’s emissions.

That strikes me as a healthy way to think about legacy.

After all, we routinely honor the financial generosity of families that establish scholarships, libraries, hospitals and community foundations. Those gifts acknowledge that success carries an opportunity to give back.

Climate deserves similar thinking. This isn’t about paying for the past. It’s about leveraging the prosperity we inherited to secure a carbon-balanced and viable future.

Imagine if families whose businesses relied heavily on fossil fuels, companies that flourished during the carbon age or even those of us who simply recognize our own accumulation of lifetime carbon emissions acknowledged this reality. What would it look like to leave the atmosphere better than we found it?

The answer won’t be the same for everyone. You could support scientific research, invest in climate technologies, restore forests, improve local ecosystems or donate to climate mitigation organizations.

The important thing is not perfection. It’s participation.

Climate change can feel impossibly large because no single person created it and no single person can solve it. But legacies are built one decision at a time. The greatest gift we can give future generations isn’t pretending the past didn’t happen. It’s acknowledging what we inherited, accepting our share of responsibility and choosing to leave behind something better.

That’s not paying for the past. It’s paying forward to the future.

Jacquelyn Francis is the founder and executive director of Climate Curve, a local nonprofit. Visit climatecurve.org for more information.