I marvel at the ability Ben Franklin had to design institutions to fit social needs: the fire department and the library are prime examples of his ingenuity. I wonder if it isn’t time to design some new institutions to fit our social and ecological needs. How can we best care for our commons?
If Franklin was alive today, I suspect he would be supporting an idea that came from his colleagues at the Iroquois nation, the Haudenesaunee. That idea is to make decisions with the seventh generation in mind. At a meeting that Franklin attended and served as the secretary, the Iroquois reported that he was the only one who listened.
The seventh generation principle is being revitalized by tribal nations and organizations who suggest that governments and other institutions should actually appoint guardians for future generations. (visit the Indigenous Environmental Network’s website: www.ienearth.org) This is an idea whose time has come. Can you imagine your city council having one representative whose sole responsibility was to serve as a sentinel, a guardian for future generations? Or a guardian ad litem who could intervene in court on behalf of future generations? Or a university office evaluating the effects of the university’s research and educational policies on the next generation?
We have some governmental experiments that might be retrofitted to our new needs – the public intervenor in Wisconsin and the public advocate in New Jersey. The New Jersey public advocate was created in 1974 to give voice to those unable to speak for themselves – the disabled, the elderly, children. Twenty years later, then-Governor Christie Todd Whitman, dismantled the public advocate’s office because of budgetary constraints. Just last week, on March 27th, Governor Corzine opened a new office of the public advocate. The smallest of all New Jersey agencies, the public advocate could evolve into a model of guardianship for the seventh generation. What if the office of the public advocate also served as a voice for other species and the ecosystems of New Jersey?
Wisconsin’s story is still in Act 4 and awaiting an Act 5. In Act 1 (1967), the public intervenor’s office was created to defend the public’s interest in natural resources. It was empowered to sue any actor that infringed on the public’s rights whether the bad actor was another government agency, an individual or a corporation. In Act 4 (1995-96), the legislature abolished the office of public intervenor. To paraphrase Dr. Seuss, now no one in Wisconsin speaks for the trees – or at least speaks for the trees that reside in the public domain. What would it take for Wisconsin to reinstate the office of the public intervenor?
Other countries have seen fit to create some marvelous new institutions. Israel, for example, has a commissioner for future generations.
There are other institutions that would help us make wiser decisions about the commons for this and future generations. The Tomales Bay Institute has been demonstrating the value of doing an audit of the commons. What if every community had an agency to do those audits and report the outcome with the annual budget?
Our environmental agencies currently evaluate risk and then slap band-aids on hemorrhages. We’ve created intolerable messes with our blind-eyed institutions. What if instead of measuring and managing risk an environmental agency was charged with evaluating and choosing the safest, most ingenious, most beautiful alternative?
I’ve only started a list of possibilities of new institutions – a public intervenor for the commons, a commons audit agency and an alternatives assessment office. What would you add? Some wag once said that knowing what to do next is the definition of genius. What do we do next? The grandchildren want to know.