Pardee Center Hosts Participatory Webinar Launching New Book, The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World

On July 17, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, and Climate-KIC co-hosted a participatory webinar based on the new book, The Good Ancestor: How To Think Long Term in a Short-Term World, by public philosopher Roman Krznaric.

The event, which was attended on Zoom by about 75 people from around the world, incorporated 15 tailor-made cartoons by artists Feggo, Kendra Allenby, and Rebeka Ryvola via Cartoon Collections to guide discussion about four main themes presented in the book:

1) Intergenerational Justice: Recognizing our moral responsibility and obligations to the generations who will succeed us.
2) Cathedral Thinking: The practice of envisaging and embarking on projects with time horizons stretching decades and even centuries into the future.
3) Legacies for the Future: Asking ourselves how we want to be remembered by future generations and how they will judge us for our actions (or lack thereof).
4) Redesigning Democracy: Exploring the most effective ways to design “short-termism” out of our political systems and public institutions.

Following Krznaric’s talk, participants viewed a series of cartoons based on the theme they selected, annotated those cartoons, and then entered Zoom breakout groups to discuss their selected theme in small groups. Finally, participants returned for a Q&A session with Krznaric.