Last week, I suggested one of the key problems we face is that our critical challenges are long-term, but our thinking and decision-making is short term.
I noted the UN Secretary General, in a September 2021 speech to the General Assembly, said “global decision-making is fixed on immediate gain, ignoring the long-term consequences of decisions — or indecision.” And I stated we need a time horizon that extends beyond this financial year-end or this legislature’s term of office.
So I was very pleased to see Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, in an interview in last Sunday’s Times Colonist, saying she sees her job as setting the city up for success 50 years down the line, and that “some of the policies that we’ve put in place and the actions we’ve taken … are leaving a good legacy for the next 50 years.”
The choice of 50 years is an interesting one, because one of the themes I will explore in my columns this year is that 2022 marks 50 years since the first UN Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in June 1972.