Someone recently asked a question on Reddit that went viral. They wrote: “There is a Greek proverb: “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” What are the greatest examples of this in human history?” The responses came in thick and fast. Here are 10 of the most interesting ones.
1. Joseph Bazalgette and the London Sewage System
“Joseph Bazalgette was a Victorian engineer who masterminded London’s modern sewer system in the 1860’s, he foresaw the insane population growth and when all the calculations were made on how big to bore the “pipes” underground, he essentially said nah lets double it. Now, infrastructure that would have been unable to cope in the 1960’s is still in use today.”
2. Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund
Established a few decades ago to invest the surplus of the country’s oil and gas sector, the Sovereign Wealth Fund is now worth over $1 trillion. While no dividends are paid out to citizens, 4% of the fund’s assets can be spent annually by the government to benefit the country.
One Redditor wrote, “That generation could have taken a selfish view and just taken the cash, or politicians just gone on a vote buying spree. But it’s independently invested and managed for the benefit of future generations.”
3. The Cassini Family Map
“The Cassini family map, a first of its kind map of France. It took 4 generations of family members and 6 decades to complete.
Imagine being that second family member. Your whole life your father works on this map, only for you to work your whole life on it while raising your son to do the same, and it takes a whole nother life for it to be completed.”
4. Roosevelt and the National Parks
Oft-referred to as “the conservation president,” Theodore Roosevelt established 5 new national parks in the US, signed the Antiquities Act, and ultimately helped conserve over 230 million acres of US land.
“If he never did what he did there wouldn’t be any [national parks] today. Corporate greed would have wiped it all out.”
5. The Voyager Spacecraft
“It’s hard to overstate how much that project changed humanity’s knowledge of the solar system…NASA is still planning future missions based on information the Voyager spacecraft discovered. If alien life gets discovered on Europa or Titan, you can thank the Voyager engineers and scientists….And they won’t see this work through to the end. They can’t. Voyager began the planning stages fifty years ago. Human lives just aren’t long enough. And they knew it.”
6. Public Infrastructure
“People got to live to see the opening of one rail line or bridge, or several, but the integrated network of public infrastructure, that took a 100 years to grow and is still growing.”
7. The Famous Cathedrals in Europe
“I have recently been to Cologne’s cathedral, they started building it in 1248, they stopped unfinished in 1560, then halfway through the 1800s they started building it again, finishing it in 1880. Not only the original builders would not see it finished, but neither would their grandchildren.”
8. Susan B. Anthony
“Susan B. Anthony spent her entire life trying to get women the vote, she was fined for attempting to vote, and spent years organizing people to fight for the cause. She died in 1906, a decade before the 19th amendment was ratified.”
9. Old Japanese Volunteers after WW2 Nuclear Bombs
“The old Japanese people who volunteered to clean up nuclear waste sites from the WWII bombings. They knew that they likely wouldn’t live long enough to suffer the worst of the effects of radiation, so they did it to protect younger people from experiencing it and to clean up Japan for future generations.”
10. The Royal Navy Admiral Who Planted Oaks
“During the Napoleonic wars there was a Royal Navy admiral who when on leave used to wander his country estate planting oak trees to provide timber for the navy. It’s estimated they are about ready now.”
Can You Think of Any Others?
This was a short selection of the many answers the OP received. In reality, there are countless examples – both major and minor – of people doing admirable deeds for the good of future generations. Do you have any to add? Drop a comment to let us know.
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Source: Reddit.