Solidarity, Sustainability, Stewardship: Ethics across Generations

The religious foundations of environmental concern have rarely been seen as a foundation for environmental ethics: namely, obligations across generations. In this essay, we offer three ethical principles—solidarity, sustainability, and stewardship—whose religious roots illuminate our duties to future generations. “Solidarity” extends both to unborn humans and to nonhuman species; “sustainability” is reflected in connections to generations both past and future; “stewardship” is the imperative of responsibility imposed on today’s generation who understand the global environmental challenge and respond to it with hope instead of despair.