Generation We

cut and paste the following Richard Heinberg piece from Post Carbon Institute:

They will be the first generation since the Great Depression to come to maturity in a period of economic decline. They will inherit a world that is overpopulated and depleted of resources. They are at home in a world of Internet social tools that baffle their elders. They take climate change seriously and want alternatives to fossil fuels. The older members of this demographic cohort are voting for the first time, and they are voting overwhelmingly for Obama.

A YouTube video, website, and book titled "Generation We" offer up a paean to the promise of the under-30 generation, which will be more numerous than the Baby Boomers who are their parents and grandparents. Boomers screwed up big time, but "Generation We" will tidy the mess.

This cohort has plenty of challenges to face—peak oil, climate chaos, economic collapse, the end of economic growth. And their Facebook skills may not prepare them especially well for the tasks that await them—growing food without chemical fertilizers or diesel fuel for tractors, keeping warm in the winter without natural gas, keeping the computers running without spare parts or reliable electricity.

Nevertheless, their evident willingness (according to the YouTube video) to grapple with the energy transition as a first priority is heartening. The Green New Deal will need millions of young people willing to learn skills related to energy production and efficiency, and to engage in basic productive tasks like farming. And millions of those young people are going to need work as the economy shrinks.

It seems like a good fit.

It could be argued that the video and book were baked from a recipe of two cups PR for every tablespoon of real demographic research. Nevertheless, even though the willingness and ability of "Generation We" to engage in the energy transition has likely been overstated, that may be a good thing. If the Green New Deal is going to succeed, it will require effective PR efforts to motivate the citizenry to apply themselves to new and different tasks, to cooperate, and to sacrifice. If the next generation is to survive, it needs to see itself as having a historic mission to accomplish.

In short, even though some may find this kind of material a bit hokey or manipulative or unrealistically hope-inspiring, it's needed. But the next installments must go further than fuzzy, feel-good sentiments and begin to orient "Generation We" to the kinds of practical tasks they must take up.

This will be the next Greatest Generation despite the narcissistic profligacy of the self-obsessed and stunted adolescence of the Baby Boomers. They have all my support.