Seven Generations

At the Bioeconomy and Climate Change Symposium at MSU yesterday, Frank Ettawageshik, the executive director of the United Tribes of Michigan, gave a tribal perspective on climate change that I found to be really interesting, and one that fits well with UAID's underlying goals. In a nutshell, it was that the tribes plan seven generations ahead. Seven generations isn't a quantifiable time, nor is it a time frame that allows us to develop models and scenarios realistically (we just can't accurately predict that far into the future). However, thinking that way challenges us to plan for a time when we're entirely forgotten, when our descendants probably can't name us.

So I'm asking: what would you want to see for your descendants of seven generations? What would Detroit have to do, be or look like for you to want your descendants to be residing there that long from now?