This speech (pdf) defies description.  Before you read it, ask yourself: If human society (and most humans) were to cease existing in 200 years, would that bother you?  The organization The Long Now, on whose work the article is based, presents a fascinating, and very needed, concept.

Sustainability is, by its very nature, forward-thinking.  The Long Now posits that one of the reasons that people do not act in ways that are mindful of future generations is that they have not been encouraged to think about the future.  Many people’s dreams of the future stopped at Disney’s visions circa 1950 and our society has already far exceeded most of those, so what is left? 

Envisioning a future is a huge part of creating it.  I love that there are a bunch of not-but-almost-crazy people out there who write their dates as 12/19/02007; that in itself displays much-needed optimism.