Should We Blame A Specific Generation for Climate Change?
In today’s fast-paced world, it seems we’re always looking for the quickest fix to solve our problems. Something that will get us out of an issue that doesn’t cost us time nor cause us the hassle. Unfortunately, this often gets ‘resolved’ in passing the problem off to someone else, which usually prolongs the wait for the much-needed resolution.
For instance, consider the extensive crisis that is climate change. This issue threatens a multitude of people whose homes are in danger of being destroyed by rising sea levels. It’s exterminating entire species of animals from mass deforestation and forest fires. Even more directly, global warming is causing a rise in waterborne diseases, poor air quality, and diseases transmitted by insects and rodents. Since the rise in acknowledgment of climate change in the 1990s, this complex and difficult issue has been tossed from lap to lap of the generations that have and will exist. From the tired hands of the Baby Boomers to the heavy shoulders of the Millennials. This growing issue has been passed around more times than the collection plate during a church offertory. Will it do us any good to continue the tradition of passing this issue off to the next generation in hopes they can solve it while we watch? No, it will not.
Younger generations are often seen in the eyes of the older as being idealistic about how the world can suddenly be turned around and saved, in hopes for a safe future. Leaving them to be viewed as having an unwarranted sense of entitlement and being overly-emotional, e.g. ‘Generation Snowflake’. Whereas the younger generation commonly sees the older as being too traditionalist in their actions and ideologies of how the world can operate, resistant to progressive policies, and hogging of the money they’ve acquired, e.g. the phrase ‘Okay Boomer’.
However, if our generations continue to dispute the future of our planet while offending each other in the process, we’ll never see the day when a solution is met. Instead, we must come together, acknowledge our differences, understand our unique histories, and compromise our visions to achieve a resolution towards a more sustainable future as quickly as possible.
Over decades past, generations have a pattern of harnessing a disdain for the generations that come after them. Nonetheless, according to research done by UC Santa Barbara psychologist John Protzko and the highly acclaimed marshmallow test, children today have become better at delaying gratification than children in decades past. Which coincides with possessing less narcissistic traits. This Olivet Nazarene University article gets down to the exact details as to what’s occurring in these two generations’ minds when thinking of one another.
The baby boomers become irritated by millennials’ smartphone use (48%), sense of entitlement (41%), and laziness (35%). Whereas millennials become annoyed by the boomers’ “know it all” personalities (52%), sense of entitlement (47%), and egos (34%). As you can see, both generations have issues with one another’s sense of entitlement. Showing that they have more common ground than they believe already!
Over the past century, we’ve seen a dramatic switch in how climate change has been received by the general public. In the early 1900s, the concept that the world might someday become warmer was actually welcomed. To call back on the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius; “By the influence of the increasing percentage of carbonic acid [CO2] in the atmosphere, we may hope to enjoy ages with more equable and better climates, especially as regards the colder regions of the earth.”
In witnessing this century-old common philosophy, we begin to understand that generations ago, goals that we currently have in place such as the reduction of the world’s carbon footprint wasn’t even a flash in their mind’s eye. Countless articles [1, 2, 3] love to pin the blame of this chaotic world that we’re living in on the Baby Boomer generation (born 1945 – 1960) without taking into consideration the world that they were raised in and the World War that had occurred prior to them being born.
Through the strict mentalities of their parental figures and educational systems to the diets and household products their families would commonly use, this generation had a much different upbringing than those that followed. The rigid conditions that they grew up within gave way to their later rebellion and redefining of traditional values. Living on to become the wealthiest, and possessing the most disposable income for food, apparel, and retirement programs, while over half of their generation currently claims to either not be engaged or actively disengaged at work.
Through the strict mentalities of their parental figures and educational systems to the diets and household products their families would commonly use, this generation had a much different upbringing than those that followed. The rigid conditions that they grew up within gave way to their later rebellion and redefining of traditional values. Living on to become the wealthiest, and possessing the most disposable income for food, apparel, and retirement programs, while over half of their generation currently claims to either not be engaged or actively disengaged at work.
Even though Baby Boomers are constantly harped on for their negligence in eco-awareness, a recent survey by Censuswide for Avia actually shows the opposite. Compared to a younger generation people aged over 55 were ahead in almost every environmental activity that the surveyors monitored. This generations’ upbringing would go on to affect their ideologies on how they picture the world evolving. A stark contrast when compared to one of the more recent generations, the Millennials/Gen Y (born 1981 – 1996).
Commonly seen at the helm of recent political protests, whether for climate change or human rights, the millennials are vocal about what they care about and use the waters of the digital spheres they were raised within to carry their bottled messages. Many large political events occurred during their formative years (the 9/11 terrorist attack, invasion of Iraq, etc).
Lending a hand to their strong stance on making sure to voice their political opinions, much like Gen X (born 1961-1980) that came before them. Participating in protests such as The Children’s March For Survival, Occupy Wall Street, Act Up, and many others. Many millennials aspire to have a future that feels free and flexible as opposed to prior generations that desired more structured realities like homeownership, job security, and a work-life balance. Encroaching news reports of depleting resources strikes a heavy chord with this generation which causes them to express their fears and anger with those in charge of laws and regulations that could turn these news reports around.
These crucial misunderstandings between generations have caused friction and mistrust around how we as a society can come together and work towards slowing and stopping the advancing threat of the climate crisis we all have front row seats to. With an increase of 30 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions since 1940, our world cannot take much more before it shows even more drastic repercussions than the ones we’ve already witnessed. Organizations have started declaring the younger demographics as the ‘Climate Change Generation’ in reference to those growing within an education system that teaches the severity of climate change from a young age.
It’s very important that we’re receiving the knowledge that will help to save our planet, but the efforts of saving shouldn’t just be on the shoulders of those in this age bracket. If we as a society make an effort to not just put aside our differences, but embrace them, we will start to move towards the goal that we all want to achieve, a healthy planet for ourselves and our future generations to thrive within. Every human should feel the obligation to improve how the world proceeds in its environmental awareness, even if it won’t necessarily affect them as much as those being brought into the world now.
