One from the weekend SMH - Shame on you, Generation Excess

But is it all coming to an end? Are petrol prices and global warming just the tip of a melting iceberg primed to set humanity back on its heels, such that our kids won't enjoy anything like the fruits of life that we have? More worryingly, am I, and my generation partly to blame as the generation that tried to warn against all this in the '60s and '70s, but then said "wait for me" as the world took off again in the 1980s?

The much castigated Club of Rome, a group of wealthy industrialists concerned about resource depletion in the 1970s, rang the early alarm bells. They predicted that petrol (and other resources) would begin to be seriously depleted by around 2010. Biologist Paul Ehrlich, another casualty of that era, tried to reinvigorate the Malthusian debate about the world being finite and unable to cope with infinite population growth. There were even (bite my tongue) economists reflecting on the impossibility of exponential economic growth and the irony of the economic notion of "diminishing rates of returns" being totally ignored by their fellow dismal scientists in cahoots with politicians who strove to drive the growth train ever faster.

But these all went the way of the dinosaurs with the discovery of new oil in the 1980s, an invigorated debate against birth control by the major religions, and a dumbing down of questioning and discussion by politicians and large corporations stung by, among other things, the successful public reaction against the Vietnam War.

Now all our chickens are coming home to roost. Peak oil appears to have occurred around 2006 (although we won't know until we're well into decline). Climate change is a reality, food shortages are beginning to hit worldwide. In this light, current arguments about which political party can pull off a five-cents a litre reduction in petrol are akin to Nero arguing with his butler about whether his toga is clean enough to play the fiddle.

Ironically, "going the way of the dinosaurs" not only includes being made extinct, but also having a later civilisation burn up your mortal remains to run the sodding air-conditioners on their SUVs.

Adding to insult to injury indeed...
;-)

While this op-ed piece by Dr Egger raises many valid points,particularly about the population issue I can't help but think that the good doctor is,and has been,living in some fenced enclosure away from reality.A bit like the Bilbies out at Currawinya NP in SW QLD.

It is quite bizarre when somebody who has obviously lived a priviledged existence apologizes for some perceived faults of his generation - those dreadful "Baby Boomers".I happen to be a member of that generation and I,along with the vast majority of that generation,have worked very hard for scant reward and made many sacrifices.When I was born in 1947 I had to make the best(or worst)of the situation as it then existed and make mistakes among successes - Just like everybody else at any time in human history.The period 1950 to 2000 was,for Western civilization,an era of relative stability and increasing well being for most(not all)of the population.This was an accident of history but it was not a "Golden Age" as some would nostalgically have.There were also a great many downsides - the cold war,the threat of nuclear annihilation,numerous wars of insurgency,economic problems and,for the more aware, a growing sense that our civilization was wrecking the Earth.I,for one,will not be making any grotesque apologies for the fact that I was born when I was.

I am rather weary of this generational blame/envy/guilt trip that some individuals,young and old,are seeking to impose on my generation.Sooner,rather than later,we will be out of the way.Who are going to be the scapegoats then?

As always,scapegoating,while a common human proclivity,is totally counterproductive.It is the task of everyone,young and old,to grasp the nature of our problems and address them with courage and wisdom.

I might add I didn't agree with that piece - it not only got "The Limits To Growth" all wrong (like almost everyone else) and does the population doomer thing (which I can't stand) but its an exercise in futility - no attempt to try and see and promote any sort of solution, just a long whinge...