Universities and Planetary Health

ASU President Michael M. Crow defines the urgent responsibility of universities as future finders—institutions entrusted with privilege, resources, and societal support to ensure a livable, sustainable future for generations to come. Speaking from the ASU Global Futures Laboratory and its Center for Planetary Health, Crow outlines a model for higher education that is grounded in multi-generational responsibility, not just short-term advancement. He challenges the idea of environmentalism as obstructionist, advocating instead for a bold, systems-level approach to achieving economic, social, and ecological sustainability, without sacrificing growth or innovation. This is a powerful call for universities to leverage science, policy, and education to safeguard liberty and opportunity for future generations. Essential viewing for climate leaders, educators, policymakers, and anyone invested in planetary health and long-term human flourishing.

So the role of universities is we are future finders. So we're given great privilege. We get tenured positions. We get, you know, beautiful facilities and equipment. And the people of the United States are unbelievably generous to the National Science Foundation and the and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and foundations funding us and private citizens. It's all set up so that the universities can be successful. Well, one of the things that we have to focus on with 8 billion people on the planet is, can we make certain that – my grandchildren are already alive – I might live long enough to see my great grandchildren. I won't live long enough to see my great great great grandchildren or my great great great great grandchildren, but I do know who my great great great great grandparents were, even though I never met them – How do I make certain that there's nothing in their life, four generations from now, or five generations from now, in which the earth and all of its beauty and its glory and its power is diminished for their life?

And so I have this thing that I say from time to time when I meet with libertarians, and I'll say, well, I'm a libertarian. I'm just not a single generation libertarian. I'm a multi-generational libertarian, and I am attempting to do everything that I can to ensure that no one's future liberty, that is living the life they want to live, is diminished by the earth itself being made unsustainable by our actions that then therefore reduces that future generation's liberty.

That's what we're doing. So the Global Futures Laboratory, which is headquartered in the building that we call the Center for Planetary Health - these are not environmental wacko centers. You know, we're we're not we're not saying, you know, cut off all economic development. We're not saying to cut off all future. We're saying, how do we build a responsible pathway to a future in which we can have economic success, social success, sustainable success. And we do not diminish the liberty of any generation of the future.