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.