WHO SHOULD CARE about the future? Young people, obviously, because they have to live in it. And they have done their job. I spent the ’80s and the ’90s and much of the ’00s listening to my peers complain about “kids today” and how they were apathetic and how it wasn’t like the ’60s and on and on. I don’t know if it was ever true, but it clearly hasn’t been in recent years: On issues from civil rights to prison reform to the one I know best—climate change—young people have been firmly in the forefront.
When I founded 350.org, the first iteration of a global climate movement, it was alongside seven college students—and it was their generation that built that movement out, from the divestment campaigners on college campuses to the Sunrise Movement that spurred the Green New Deal to Greta Thunberg and the many like her who built the powerhouse Fridays for Future coalition.
But they cannot do it alone. They need, in particular, their grandparents and great-grandparents—the boomers and the silent generation above them. Those of us in those categories are the fastest-growing demographic in the country—we add 10,000 to our ranks each day (though, of course, we subtract some too). We vote in huge numbers, and we have ended up with most of the assets, fairly or not.
That’s why a few of us are trying to start something called Third Act, to give the kids some backing. For instance, this autumn young people in the climate movement are targeting Chase Bank—it’s the biggest lender to the fossil fuel industry. Their efforts are enormously important: Chase cares about whether young people will take out their first credit card with the bank. But they care even more about those who have hefty retirement accounts, and who have the time and acumen to figure out how to move them. So it was a natural synergy to add to the efforts of young people.
We can do the same across many fights, from voter suppression to immigration reform. We understand that, in many ways, our generation has messed up: We’re on the verge of leaving the world a worse place than we found it, which is a pretty terrible legacy to contemplate. But it doesn’t need to be that way: For many of us, the first act of our life was pretty good, either witnessing or participating in the great liberation movements that really did transform the culture. The second act, perhaps, was a little heavy on consuming. But now we emerge into our final innings with skills, with resources, and with grandkids, all of which give us power.
So, let’s use it. There’s no time to waste. Forget “OK boomer.” It’s time for “OK elders, let’s go!”
Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, is the author most recently of The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.
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