Hi all,

So I have recently been contemplating how certain things undertaken by members of society can really be perceived as "good" (which in my experience they are) when they effect future generations in a negative manner.

For example, I often hear of people who work with the elderly "doing good" by the very act of helping the older person, whether it's through physical rehabilitation following an illness/fall or just undertaking their housework etc.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this is not "doing good" as clearly these acts benefit the individual in question, however I just want to draw your thoughts to what I perceive as the downside to this. In my mind it would take resources (however small) to undertake these "good" acts (fuel to power the electrical outlets to power the vacuum or to power the building where the physical therapy takes place). I appreciate that the amount of resources used is very small (practically non existent) however there is still going to be resources spent nonetheless.

The issue that I have with this is that any additional pollution (or harmful result of undertaking the task) will mean future governments will take longer to resolve the issue (in this instance pollution) which will then effect the future generations. My logic behind this is as follows. Resources are used to assist people of today. This may mean more pollution is caused through undertaking this act. Although small the amount of pollution will add to current levels meaning if the government wants to solve (or work towards solving) climate change they will have to spend resources on trying to counteract the harm done today (even if only small) which will take longer then if we had not caused the pollution in the first instance (by not helping the elderly person). This will mean that other concerns that governments have to deal with in the future will get delayed even if only by a small amount. As a result in time more people will suffer.

Now you may argue that this will only affect a small population of people, however as more time will have to be spent solving the additional pollution caused today this will mean that every future concern would be lagging behind.

Basically by using resources today and creating even just a small amount of pollution it will mean it takes longer to resolve the issues that pollution bring and other issues that the government wish to look into in the future due to more time being spent on issues created today. Therefore how can we say that we are really "doing good" when more people in the future suffer?

Hopefully this makes sense, if not please ask and I will try to clarify.

Many thanks

Luke