The Oil Age May Not End the Way You Imagine It Will
Who’s going to decide — governments or the oil industry?
As an average citizen of the United States, one with no particular power over our political trajectory beyond my ability to vote and encourage others to vote, I have very little say in how our descent into a hotter, resource-depleted world will play out. This contrasts with how much I worry about that impending descent, its impact on my children and grandchildren, and its deep implications for the future of humanity writ large.
The IPCC recently posted a graphic that emphasizes the vastly different dangers climate change poses for different generations living today. Here it is:
The subtext is obvious. Today, climate mitigation and adaptation decisions are being made (or not made) by decision makers generationally in the bottom row of this image. That’s my generation. But it is those in the top row — young people born in this century — who will bear the burden of the decisions (or non-decisions) being made today. Today we are watching a very big can being kicked down a very short road.
