Reasons to commit to the future of Life on Earth

Why should you make a personal commitment to ensure the wellbeing of the future of Life on Earth? Mainly because it's the right thing to do, there's no time to wait, and it leads to better results.

Moral Reasons

Moral reasons to commit to the wellbeing of the future include concepts such as moral weight (the idea that the future may contain many more lives than those alive today), a moral aftershadow (that we are responsible for the way that our actions affect probable futures), a recognition that live on Earth is our most ancient institution and deserving of long continuation, and our own right to live in dignity to our fullest potential, instead of making little or no benefit to the future.

There is no time to wait

We have already lost so many life-supporting resources, such as ecosystem buffers and arable land, as well as increase technological and war-related risks, that many people are already on the wrong side of the disaster. The longer we wait to make the future of Life our priority, the more we will continue to lose.

It's better for you and the future

First of all, commitment improves both for the future of Life as well as your own future. Not only is committing better than not committing (and merely "doing your part"), but placing top priority on the largest commitment (to the future of Life on Earth) leads to better outcomes than to a smaller commitment (such as to improve your community's wellbeing). Smaller commitments nest inside the larger commitments, thus gaining larger significance without becoming ends-in-themselves.

Why commitment is better than non-commitment

Commitment helps you escape diffusion of responsibility and procrastination. If we are not committed, we are more likely to believe that other people will take care of it, or that we can do it later.

Why commitment to the future of Life is better than a smaller commitment

Although popular intuition often feels that smaller commitments are more feasible, commitment to the future of life itself will lead to better-chosen smaller commitments. It also may lead to a more practical approach to improving our own life: smaller commitments do not ask us to improve our lives as much.

The needs of the future of Life supersede or subsume smaller concerns

In addition, most of the smaller problems that are truly worth solving (in the bigger picture) would be resolved along the way of taking care of the future of life; and conversely, if the future of life is not cared for, none of the smaller issues will matter anyway (the plot and the actors do not matter if the theatre collapses).