Our responsibilities towards future generations : Malta’s contribution

Abstract

During the late sixties the world communitv was awakened to a new dimemsion of social awareness which remained marginal in its consciousness for many decades. This was the awareness of the limits to growth. Many began to realise that it was unrealistic to speak simply of progress, without taking very seriously into account the limitations of natural resources, the ecological crisis, the dangerous consequences of modern technology, and the evergrowing double gap: between some parts of the world and others on the one hand; between present and future generations on the other. In the early seventies, one of the results of this new social consciousness was the publication of various international reports on the state of the planet Earth. These reports have done much to increase public awareness and to focus attention on this simple message: If present trends continue, the world in the future will be more crowded, more polluted, less stable ecologically and more vulnerable to disruption. Despite a greater quantity of goods for consumption, the quality of life of future generations will be poorer in many ways than the present one.