The Oil Age May Not End the Way You Imagine It Will

Who’s going to decide — governments or the oil industry?

Steve Genco

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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:

A graphic from the IPCC using “climate stripes” to show increased warming since 1900 and projected warming for the rest of this century. Below this graphic are depictions of three generations, born in 1950, 1980, and 2020, showing how much warming each of them will likely face in their lifetime.
Source: Figure SPM.1 in the AR6 Synthesis Report by the IPCC, p. 7, 2022. For the story behind this graphic, see source.

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.

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Steve Genco

Steve is author of Intuitive Marketing (2019) & Neuromarketing for Dummies (2013). He holds a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University.