The baby boomers sold their souls to enjoy airconditioning, RVs, McMansions, and 30 years of retirement. We do not inherit this world from our ancestors we borrow it from our descendants.
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The baby boomers sold their souls to enjoy airconditioning, RVs, McMansions, and 30 years of retirement. We do not inherit this world from our ancestors we borrow it from our descendants.
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We could put blame on every single generation @balticbadger
Not only baby boomers are here to blame.
It depends on where you come from and what class as to whether you feel that way. For the UK and Australia the boomers were born into rationing. I know America experienced a boom after the war, but it took a lot longer to reach us. My parents, boomers, lived hand to mouth and that's what I grew up with, being grateful for a lot as things gradually got easier. I can't speak for Australian boomers as well, but I hear plenty of stories of surviving blistering summers without aircon. RVs, McMansions and aircon seem to be more of a recent phenomenon here.
I wonder if @riverflows and @mattclarke can weigh in on this. What was life like for your parents growing up?
Perhaps America led the way and the whole world following is the problem.
Bloddy typos. Bugs on my screen. Literally. Switching off now. Hot night, no air con. X
My folks drove from Adelaide to Sydney on a day like today. I was only a month or so old. They had an esky full of ice and draped a damp washcloth over me. It'd dry in minutes, so they'd repeat over and over.
I shudder to think how things would've turned out if that old car had broken down.
My mum was a ten-pound pom. One of 6 siblings. I understand life improved slowly but considerably, after they arrived from Liverpool (her mum, my maternal grandmother, used to babysit John Lennon)
My dad is 5th generation Aussie, from the middle of the wheat belt.
They got by, but war neurosis took its toll on his Dad. He was more harm than help.
My personal take on the fires, is that too much has been quarantined as National Parks, then neglected.
The massive fuel load builds until one inevitable spark incinerates an entire state and suddenly its my fault for using that plastic straw that time.
My Mum a 10 pound pom too, 6 siblings, Hull. Dad born in Munich, arrived post war with 2 brothers as 3 yo with my grandparents. Working class. Dad became draftsman, worked til 60 ish. Never had aur cin growing uo. We were comfortable but not loaded. Standard cars, later better aa they saved well. One investment property Dad went in with his brothers, profit okay but not extreme. They have a lovely house on an acre, not huge by standards around here. Definitely wouldnt blame them for anything.. theyve lived a pretty conscious life. They don't even have air con now! Just a passive solar house.
What a day to pick to drive halfway across the country! Obviously, it wasn't your time as that car held out. My dad's cars were always breaking down. I can't imagine one would have ever made that kind of journey. A trip to Wales to see his parents usually meant a week of maintenance to make sure it got there.
Are the national parks the areas that used to be maintained by the aboriginal burnings?
At one time I'd have said extend the rainforests and you won't get the fires, but then Brazil...Who'd have thought a rainforest could burn.
I think the aboriginals used to burn wherever the bush was sufficiently dense, then harvest the wildlife fleeing from the flames.
Thousands of nomadic groups, each picking an area clean of edibles, then burning it to the ground, meant no one area was big enough, or had a chance to grow dense enough, to cause the kind of bedlam we're living through now.
My parents were the same no AC, no family vacations, humble house. I guess it's way worse in America but I see it spreading here to Germany. They all talk big and they go jetting around the world every holiday and pulling huge campers down the autobahn all over Europe. In the US they always chose industry over the environment and protected property instead of letting it burn naturally. More the baby boomers government than lifestyle I guess. And now the mass migrations out of Africa because the environment can't sustain the population will surely lead to more disasters.
I guess the boomers were just the era where this all started, but only a small portion of the population could afford to live that. We got to a point where more and more could afford to spend and it was unsustainable. Now people don't want to give up their aircon (I certainly don't right now! 45°C and climbing).
I don't like to see a generation blamed when it's only really a small percentage who live that way. In many ways, it's the millennials and gen Zs who have gotten used to a comfortable life which most boomers never had and would struggle to give up their mod cons. Perhaps we gen Xs are more to blame for giving them what we never had growing up and now they take it for granted.
But it's so easy to blame someone!!! 🤣 you're right, the sad part is we know we are wrong and continue down our path. The good thing is the earth will still be here long after we are gone. Just depressing all the species we are bringing down with us. Then the old Viking saying goes would you save the world if you knew it's destruction brought a new one? I couldn't imagine having little ones with heat like that and no a/c. I'm more ashamed at the US lifestyle and as you said now it's spreading. I see it here in Germany as well.
🤣 isn't it just! If it's someone else fault then we don't have to fix it.
I don't know Germany well enough to make a judgement, but when I visited most of the people I visited certainly had much nicer things than we did and Germany was much cleaner than the places I was used to in England. Just my great aunt lived in more basic conditions. I'm guessing there would be a mixture just like anywhere, though.