Is it really fair to pin everything on the Baby Boomer generation? Haven't subsequent generations been acting pretty much exactly the same way? It's not just about gasoline and SUVs, you know. The clothes you wear, the plastic electronic toys you listen to music with, the vacations you take, the non-local food you eat, and so much more - it all contributes to the problem of too much carbon dug out of the ground and then burned. Blaming 50-somethings is just a completely unjustified way for 20-somethings to feel good about themselves. If you want to assign blame for the state we're in, put it on American society in general, and include yourselves. Our lifestyle is totally unsustainable, but almost everyone has been happy to go along for the ride until recently, and even now, I don't see that many people actually changing how they live all that dramatically. But wringing your hands about how bad everyone else is makes you feel better about yourself, doesn't it?
And also, at this point, even if the entire US population suddenly saw the light and drastically reduced our energy consumption, it would hardly make a difference. China is coming on strong and will overtake the US in energy consumption within 10-20 years, and nothing short of global catastrophe is going to stop them.
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randy said on March 29, 2008:
Is it really fair to pin everything on the Baby Boomer generation? Haven't subsequent generations been acting pretty much exactly the same way? It's not just about gasoline and SUVs, you know. The clothes you wear, the plastic electronic toys you listen to music with, the vacations you take, the non-local food you eat, and so much more - it all contributes to the problem of too much carbon dug out of the ground and then burned. Blaming 50-somethings is just a completely unjustified way for 20-somethings to feel good about themselves. If you want to assign blame for the state we're in, put it on American society in general, and include yourselves. Our lifestyle is totally unsustainable, but almost everyone has been happy to go along for the ride until recently, and even now, I don't see that many people actually changing how they live all that dramatically. But wringing your hands about how bad everyone else is makes you feel better about yourself, doesn't it?
And also, at this point, even if the entire US population suddenly saw the light and drastically reduced our energy consumption, it would hardly make a difference. China is coming on strong and will overtake the US in energy consumption within 10-20 years, and nothing short of global catastrophe is going to stop them.