Posted at 9:00 a.m.
Dear Juliette, I read your letter in The Press with great interest… and sadness. You see, for us of Generation X, reading your concern, not to say your dismay, is very distressing. First, because the current climate crisis is largely due to our carelessness and that of the generations that have preceded us since the industrial revolution.
Then we were the first to be able to do something. However, when we entered the job market, we did practically nothing. When we had access to the seats of power, well, we sat there comfortably! We were, however, the first to be aware of the perverse effects of our behavior on the environment.
Will you forgive us, you and your peers? To make it easier for you, let me try to cheer you up a bit. First, I believe that profound changes will come.
Remember your history lessons: it took several centuries for the West to invent the nation-state and establish a democratic regime there. Closer to home, until the first decades of the last century, women’s only duties were to procreate and keep house. They didn’t even have the right to vote! Today, your professional future is bright and your rights are recognized. And as no one is unaware of the ecological slump in which we are, promising solutions are already showing up; others, still unsuspected, will come.
But here, pay attention to the solutions that hide other problems. For example, are we more advanced if people settle in the city in the wake of densification, but quickly escape to the countryside (cottage, boat, trailer) as soon as the weekend and the holidays arrive on tip of the nose… in an SUV too? Isn’t this coming and going between the countryside and the city harmful? Are we further ahead if people get an add-on rather than a replacement electric car, or if investors put their money into companies with no regard for their ESG track record (mea-culpa, I’m too often one of those)? Are we more advanced if, as soon as the sanitary measures are lifted, we urgently increase travel, leisure, outings, etc., as if our life depended on it, when we could better dose them? In short, let us be vigilant and above all consistent.
Renunciation necessary
Am I discouraged by this? No way. I trust your generation. It will be that of new ideas, fully aware of the challenges and dangers that await us. She will be the one who will have the courage to embrace, among other things, renunciation. Giving up oversized homes and all those goods and services we could easily do without. Renouncing, also, certain forms of entertainment (professional sports teams, Olympic Games, car races, festivals, etc.) in favor of a culture that can be expressed without necessarily causing so much travel or consumption. Your generation will also be the one that will abolish planned obsolescence and introduce the carbon budget and eco-taxation. She will be the one who will give birth to babies who will become even more daring adults and who will invent technologies so powerful that our current breakthroughs will look most anachronistic!
Yes, I have confidence, Juliette, and your letter testifies to the collective awakening that your generation will transform into concrete actions and necessary renunciations.