Uncertainty as an excuse for cheating our children

Abstract

Harming distant generations is typically an uncertain danger. Philosophers and economists use that uncertainty to excuse ignoring or discounting such dangers. Working within this orthodoxy, I firstly establish limits on the extent to which uncertainty can excuse such practices; and I find reasons for believing that problems of nuclear waste disposal might well breach those limits. Secondly, I show that the orthodoxy is appropriate only to modest forms of uncertainty. More profound uncertainty, characteristic of the nuclear waste problem in particular and distant futures in general, demands different decision rules which again argue for greater consideration of the interests of future generations. Show more