The problem that I shall address in this chapter is as follows. How are we to deal with the fact that the energy resources that at present provide the bulk of our supply, namely fossil fuels, are in practical terms nonrenewable? At best they are renewable only over geological time-spans, while we are exhausting them at rates measured in decades, or at most centuries. Is it possible to define a criterion such that, if we meet it, we will be behaving justly toward later generations? In answer I shall define precisely wherein the morally significant problem lies; propose and defend, in outline terms, a solution; and consider several practical problems of interpretation and implementation.
