Monday Lament: What To Tell My Grandchildren?

It is time to decide

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Is there anything we can say except I’m sorry? The small grandkids are good for a few years, but reality quickly intrudes. I know we all fear the questions: how bad will it get, and what do I do?

Why did you let this happen to me?

When the kids were growing up in the seventies and eighties, we could talk about how crazy people had gotten and the risk of nuclear war, but you could just hope for the best. When I was growing up, it was worse because the whole thing could go up, and we knew who could push the button, or at least we were told who was authorized to do it.

However, as the grandkids grow up, the situation worsens. They begin planning for families, and what do I say? That is not a good idea. We have, perhaps, twenty years before the rising surface temperature, resource depletion led by shrinking power sources, and resulting climate disasters drive billions into refugee status.

And, yes, those twenty years may be only five or ten years, given the accelerating carbon loading, polar heating, and collapse of nation-state governments. The polycrisis we are in will not have a Hollywood timeline. Not everyone will die on Tuesday. It won’t be explosive, but rather a steadily worsening environment marked by a steady loss of…