How Long Is "Long Term?"

"Forging and maintaining a sustainable society is The Challenge for this and all generations to come. At this point in history, no nation has managed to evolve into a sustainable society. We are all pursuing a self-destructive course of fueling our economies by drawing down our natural capital -- that is to say, by degrading and depleting our resource base -- and counting it on the income side of the ledger. This obviously is not a sustainable situation over the long term.”

Senator Gaylord Nelson
Earth Day 2000