Firstly, welcome to Medium, and hooray for writing this! I wanted to chime in and remind us all of the fact that some indigenous tribes - specifically the Iroquois (from my quick research now) - would always consider the impact of any decision they made on how it would impact seven generations in the future. Of course, I don't know exactly how this was taken into account in practice, but it is not as if humans have always stumbled around with zero regard for future generations.

We should also keep in mind that a lot of people may not feel that they can afford to think "big picture" when they are struggling to put food on the table - if only we had leaders who actually thought seven (or more) generations ahead. I can only dread to imagine what future generations are going to think of us when they realise why their planet is poisoned, burned and lifeless... from what I've seen, teenagers growing up now are very aware of what is happening to the planet (and why) :/ ... I think perhaps the best thing we can do is try to balance, somehow, being a good person now and being a good ancestor.