debate, climate change | The generation that failed

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One morning, NRK P2’s Ekko interviewed two 14-year-old girls about climate commitment and climate. The two were a little unsure of how well they really interacted, but they were “at least more engaged than previous generations.” Maybe there is something in that, but is the explanation in generation or age? My generation, who is largely controlled and dominated in recent years (Store, Stoltenberg, Solberg, Obama, Sarkozy…) is slowing down behind him, having to put up with a clear rhetoric from Greta Thunberg and Penelope Leah. . No wonder young people are handed over to us!

But stop for a moment – weren’t we too young and engaged once? Weren’t environmental crises and environmental issues among the issues that concern us the most? We were in the forties in the mid-seventies. It’s already been more than ten years since Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, about how chemical pesticides in agriculture kill insects and birds and poison the environment. In 1971, the United Nations organized its first Year of Nature Conservation, and the following year, the Club of Rome formulated harsh and well-documented critiques of a developing society in The Limits to Growth Report.

That same year, Eric Dammann published a book called The Future is in Our Hands, which unleashed the most powerful green wave that Norway has ever seen. I remember being with my mother at a lecture given by Damman. He planted some seeds that have exploded and have grown in me ever since. Environmental commitment was strong throughout the 1970s, and was expressed in seminars, public debate, actions against cars and the development of waterfalls.

Perhaps the generation that was already nearing the end of their teens at that time was the most active. A relatively large group took as a result of criticism of society hostile to the environment and man, formed groups and moved to the countryside to liberate themselves and live in harmony with nature.

In the 1980s, the right-wing wave replaced the green wave, but the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and the creation of the United Nations Climate Committee in 1988 reminded us that society was on a collision course with nature, creating a new and powerful ecological environment. commitment.

Now we’ve cut our hair, changed sandals with pencil shoes, and a tea-shirt with a suit and tie. We (my generation) rule the world in politics and business. Often so well adjusted and adjusted so well that we fear change, and spend more energy looking for excuses to continue on a steady path, than listening to the demands of young people for a change of course. But we know, because we have always known it, that a system with which we are so well adapted, drives predation upon people and nature.

We know, but we don’t say, that our future used to look brighter than the future we prepared for our children. He called us candy generation. We ate, sated, and enjoyed the brandy for coffee. So there is no excuse for my generation if we become supportive of society and close our ears to young people shouting that it is urgent.

We are not the generation that did not know us or did not participate with us. We are the generation that failed in our commitment.