Roosevelt framed conservation as duty to unborn generations outweighing present gain

Evidence

More than a century later, Theodore Roo se velt deftly upended utilitarian reasoning— which might have counseled widespread economic development of forests and other wilderness areas— by observing that “[t]he ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignifi cant fraction.” Accordingly, in Roo se velt’s view, few present economic benefi ts could be substantial enough to outweigh the stream of recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefi ts that would fl ow to generations of Americans if vital wilderness areas are preserved: “[O]ur duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled presentday minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations.” — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere, 388

Categorization

• XREF: Roosevelt’s ‘womb of time’ utilitarianism is a striking direct ancestor of the intergenerational cost-benefit critique this book develops — bridges to the environmental-justice values thread at Hamline. — connects to: The seven-generations decision rule rests on Iroquois constitutional thought — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental…, 386; Future generations reciprocate stewardship with respect or harm us by renarrating — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental…, 381; Neoclassical growth theory licensed the claim that the American way of life is optimal — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental…, 399
• SEED: A usable essay angle: American conservationism’s founding rhetoric was future-oriented and quasi-religious, directly contradicting the presentist welfare economics that later captured environmental law.