Climate Corner: Reconciling the past with the future

When we recognize that our prosperity was built, in part, on carbon emissions (the cost of which we are now paying), we gain an opportunity — not to dwell on guilt, but to pay it forward.

What did you inherit?

Inheritance often takes the form of wealth, wisdom or beauty. It might be a family home, a local business, or perhaps a cherished heirloom like a favorite pie recipe passed down through generations. My own grandmother, whose roots trace back to Cornwall, England, was known for her legendary pastries and a strawberry rhubarb pie that remains the gold standard in our family.

But beyond these personal treasures, we have all inherited a collective responsibility.

For more than a century, humanity has been accumulating an invisible inheritance: a legacy of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, primarily carbon dioxide. This debt wasn’t created out of malice or neglect; rather, it was the byproduct of building the modern world. We heated our homes, transported food, connected global communities and generated unprecedented “prosperity” using fossil fuels — largely before we fully understood the unintended consequences.

Today, we fully understand.

We now know that greenhouse gases emitted decades ago continue to warm the planet today. Every gallon of gasoline burned in 1965 still influences the climate our children and grandchildren will inherit.

This reality highlights the significance of historical emissions. While we cannot rewrite the past, we have the power to decide what kind of legacy we leave behind.

Recently, I spoke with a supporter of my nonprofit, Climate Curve, who shared a remarkably honest accounting of his family’s history. His family built businesses that helped shape the American economy. But, like many others, their success was intertwined with the burning of fossil fuels for energy, transportation and recreation. While this seems like a problem, it’s actually an opportunity to evolve and to do better.

My friend is rightfully proud of his family’s role in building businesses that served millions. He does not deny his good fortune, nor does he dismiss those emissions as a problem for someone else to solve.

Instead, he asks a more profound question:

What responsibility comes with inheriting that history?

This is a question we should all consider. Every family in America has benefited in some way from fossil fuels — whether through transportation, manufacturing, agriculture or the electricity that lights our homes. This isn't about assigning blame to previous generations. They operated with the knowledge available at the time.

But accountability is distinct from blame. While blame looks backward to find fault, accountability looks forward to creating solutions.

When we recognize that our prosperity was built, in part, on carbon emissions (the cost of which we are now paying), we gain an opportunity — not to dwell on guilt, but to pay it forward.

The donor I spoke with has spent years doing exactly that. Through his involvement with Climate Curve, he has chosen to invest in climate entrepreneurs developing today’s solutions instead of dwelling on yesterday's emissions.

That strikes me as a healthy way to think about legacy.

After all, we routinely honor the financial generosity of families that establish scholarships, libraries, hospitals and community foundations. Those gifts acknowledge that success carries an opportunity to give back. Climate deserves similar thinking. This isn’t about paying for the past. It’s about leveraging the prosperity we inherited to secure a carbon-balanced and viable future.

Imagine if families whose businesses relied heavily on fossil fuels, companies that flourished during the carbon age or even those of us who simply recognize our own accumulation of lifetime carbon emissions acknowledged this reality. What would it look like to leave the atmosphere better than we found it?

The answer won’t be the same for everyone. You could support scientific research, invest in climate technologies, restore forests, improve local ecosystems or donate to climate mitigation organizations. The important thing is not perfection. It's participation.

Climate change can feel impossibly large because no single person created it and no single person can solve it. But legacies are built one decision at a time. The greatest gift we can give future generations isn’t pretending the past didn't happen. It’s acknowledging what we inherited, accepting our share of responsibility and choosing to leave behind something better.

That’s not paying for the past. It's paying forward to the future.