A Declaration on Future Generations could bring the changes we need

Scientists who study the climate work with data that goes back thousands of years and build models that project centuries into the future. Meanwhile, CEOs and politicians base their decisions on business, political and news cycles. Can we reconcile this gap? A new gathering is going to try.

This week, world leaders will arrive in New York for the UN Summit of the Future, one of the most ambitious international conferences ever convened. It aims to cover everything from war to the economy, climate change to artificial intelligence.

Present and future generations need exactly this kind of ambition. But in…