I agree with Sonia Sodha's opinion piece that, if humans are to prevent their own extinction (and taking lots of other species with us), we have got to start thinking beyond our own lifespans (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/16/weve-got-to-start-thinking-beyond-our-own-lifespans-if-were-going-to-avoid-extinction). A view that 'short-term analysis' is a serious danger is not new but she makes a nice analogy with the medieval builders who started the construction of major European cathedrals. She points out that they must have realised that they would be dead long before seeing the completed edifice (although I am not sure that many of them would have agonised about this, so long as they were paid and could eat). I would just add the proviso that there are many people in our current world, where short-term analysis is the only option (feed yourself and your family today or be gone tomorrow). If the only people thinking longer term, are the already privileged, there is little hope.
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