Mary DeMocker interviews environmental philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore about the twin threats of climate change and corporate hegemony.
Good interview in this piece by the Center for Humans & Nature. I appreciated many parts of it, but in particular this part about old people. Once in a while, we see a photograph or read a story about environmental or climate activism, and notice or read that the activists are primarily older people, most likely women (grandmas). But, to me, and being an old person, that is the exception and not the rule. The “boomer” generation, of which I am a part, is populated mostly by older people who become activists only when someone is threatened to take away their AARP discounts at the Regal Theater or when they see the deer emerge from the adjacent forest to snack on their roses and hostas, and then they want the deer killed. Challenge me if you want, but the boomer generation was selfish back in the 60′s, and is even more so today.
I first met nature writer and philosophy professor Kathleen Dean Moore in 2004. Recently Moore examined the climate change debate and found it long on science and short on principled reasons to do right by the planet and its inhabitants. She and her colleague Michael P. Nelson decided to ask a hundred visionaries whether humans have a moral obligation to act on behalf of future generations. Their responses became the seeds of the book Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril, which Moore co-edited with Nelson.
MD: You say you’ve become a “ferocious grandmother.” What does that mean to you?
KMD: I agree with what my book’s coeditor, Michael P. Nelson, says about getting older. He doesn’t want to hear anymore about retirees being entitled to year-round perfect weather, an annual trip to Las Vegas, low taxes, easy Sunday crosswords, and reduced greens fees. Retired people often feel that, since they’ve worked all their lives, the world owes them a rest. That’s outrageous. Old age is precisely when we need to pay the world back.
Yes, we have worked hard, but our successes depended on a stable climate, temperate weather, abundant food, cheap fuel, and a sturdy government—all advantages that our children and grandchildren will not have if we don’t act.
We elders are at the peak of our ability to help. We have a wealth of experience. Many of us have sufficient income. And we have that huge commodity: time. Most of all we have a ferocious love for our grandchildren. Wouldn’t that love make us want to leave them the legacy of a beautiful world? To turn away from that into a kind of grouchy selfishness strikes me as tragic.
If your granddaughter has asthma because there is dust in the air, get out in the street and demand clean air. If your grandson is not learning well because there are toxins in the water, you should be at the city council meeting. Their parents are busy making a home for these children, but you have the time and the ability to make a difference in their future. To love someone is to have a sacred obligation to protect them.
