Climate change and the generational timescape

Abstract

The problems raised by global warming are widely discussed in terms of their implications for future generations. Underlying this generational scheme, and buttressed by its use, are certain ideas of time and of the relationship between the present and future. This article seeks to illuminate and critically examine these ideas. After a brief survey of the emergence of generational thinking in green thought, it looks at the defining features of this way of conceiving time, identifying them as constitutive of a distinctive ‘timescape’. It goes on to show how the same qualities that account for its widespread appeal are also the source of tensions, ones with implications for its capacity to act as a framework to build political support for action on climate change.