Dear Eartha,
I wonder if you could shed some light on how hot the planet actually is. I sometimes hear young people blame Baby Boomers for global warming. Are Boomers really the cause, and will younger generations be able to save it?
—No Blame Just the Facts, Please
Dear No Blame,
Love your questions, and my short answer to both is: not by themselves. The New York Times has reported that the general global warming trend continues. July 2020 tied for second-hottest July on record for the globe, according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. “What’s more, the Northern Hemisphere saw its hottest July ever, surpassing its previous record high set in 2019.”
Some say that Baby Boomers coulda-shoulda done more, 30 years ago, when the Silent Generation occupied Congress. When NASA official James Hansen testified in June 1988 to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that “the greenhouse effect” was here, not much was done. George H. W. Bush was sworn in as President the following January, and even though he said he’d fight “the greenhouse effect with the White House effect,” any substantive policy was shelved, according to Business Insider magazine. In 2001, his son George W. Bush pulled the United States out of the international Kyoto Protocol treaty.
When Greta Thunberg skipped her lessons to teach the world a lesson, and invited the planet’s young people to join her, the older generation was meant to be shamed into finally doing something. But, of course, that’s one fragment of a much wider story. One survey of 4,000 UK adults found that “people aged over 55 were ahead in almost every environmental activity they monitored, but those aged between 16 to 24 were the worst offenders.”
So, No Blame, it's complicated. Bill McKibben explains that changing the status quo is hard, but “in the case of climate change, it’s doubly hard, since you have to deal with the entire world.” But if we’ve learned anything from history, we’ve learned young people ignite social change. In some ways that’s their job. Sadly, it looks like they will be strapped with a huge bill, and playing the blame game won’t really help. We’re in this together and had better join forces. In fact, I think we have. Let’s continue that trajectory.
Yours,
Eartha
Eartha answers your questions about the Environment.
Dear Eartha is penned by Rita Bullinger.
She is a writer and columnist living in Nashville, TN.
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