COVER STORY
We are not the villains – Boomers strike back With younger generations blaming the Baby Boomers for wrecking the environment, JULIE LAKE investigates the history and writes that most of us have lived leaner, cleaner and greener lives than most young folk realise.
Baby Boomers were the first generation to seriously take on environmental battles and, more than younger generations realise, are still doing their bit to save the planet.
T
here’s a post circulating about an elderly woman who is confronted at the checkout by a supercilious young operator who accuses her – and her generation – of wrecking the environment. In reply she points out a few home truths. Namely, that today’s Baby Boomers and their parents bought groceries that weren’t pre-wrapped in elaborate packaging, lived in smaller houses, had one car if they had one at all, used public transport, had no air conditioning in their home or car and were schooled in sweaty classrooms. They drank water from the tap and
ate food that they grew, or was in season locally, rather than having “luxuries” available year-round via the modern supply chain, and rarely travelled far from home. They didn’t have clothes dryers, dishwashers, smart phones or computers and recycled and mended rather than discard. The list goes on. The much-maligned Baby Boomers are also the first generation to seriously take on the environmental battles that characterised the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. We are also part of the generation whose members gave up luxuries to live simply on brown rice and lentils, built
mud brick houses, read Earth Garden, did without pesticides, opted for peace and love rather than materialism, marched for civil rights and against war – and some are still doing it! Of course, there is only a small percentage of people in each generation who are seriously concerned about environmental issues and even fewer who will, in the words of Queensland anthropologist, environmentalist and one-time Green Party candidate Pietro Agnoletto “give up something to gain something”. It is the same today; children are more exposed to environmentalism in the classroom and thus more aware than we were, but few of them are prepared to give up the comforts and conveniences our generation gave them. What we face, Pietro says, is a complexity of environmental problems not faced by previous generations, of which climate change and overpopulation are just two examples. So, are the young today in a position to judge previous generations for climate change or any other issues when they themselves are complicit beneficiaries? “Absolutely not!” says retired teacher Jillian Kelly, who has been involved in protests from to Terrania Creek to Fraser Island. “That whole business of poor little Greta Thunberg is just too overblown by the media and is an insult to those of us who have been lifelong activists for a better, cleaner, greener environment. “How dare these kids who know nothing of life blame our entire generation! How many young people
today are actually trying to save our planet?” she says. Not as many as we might think according to a couple of British surveys which found that people aged over 55 were ahead in almost every environmental activity and those aged 16-24 were the worst offenders. In fact, the research shows that older people are more likely than the young to feel that acting in environmentally conscious ways will make a difference,
“Few children are prepared to give up the comforts and conveniences our generation gave them.” with twice as many Baby Boomers having boycotted a company in the last 12 months for environmental reasons than their teenage or 20-something grandchildren. Generation Z is popularly portrayed as a united front of youthful eco warriors justifiably at war with their parents and grandparents. As personified by young American singer Billie Eilish, who notoriously said “old people are gonna die and don’t really care if we die, but we don’t wanna die yet.” Eilish herself appears to be happily
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Phone: 07 5493 8038 | www.scorthogroup.com.au 4 YOUR TIME MAGAZINE / February 2022
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