Am I Too Old to Save the Planet, A Boomers Guide
By: Lawrence MacDonald - Changemakers Books - $15.95
Overview: Am I Too Old to Save the Planet? is a book about why American boomers are uniquely responsible for the climate crisis — and what to do about it.
Verdict: Think you’ve waited too long to do something about climate change? Think again. Am I Too Old to Save the Planet? A Boomer’s Guide to Climate Action explains how America’s most promising generation allowed climate change to become a planetary emergency - and what to do about it now.
A former foreign correspondent and vice president of the World Resources Institute, Lawrence MacDonald shares his journey to becoming a passionate climate activist. Packed with practical advice, his book invites fellow boomers to join the growing global movement to save the planet.
Well the good news is that no, Boomers, it is NOT too late to get geared up and do something about climate change. Furthermore, YOU can be heroes in the story of climate change. You might not like to hear it, as many of you have long told pollsters you consider yourselves environmentalists, but collectively you have exacerbated the climate crisis more than any other generation.
In the past decade, the world has careened through a series of panic-inducing climate records. Seas are rising and acidifying. From the peaks of the Himalayas to the permafrost of Siberia, ice is thawing. And deforestation continues to tear down swathes of oxygen-gifting plant life.
This year, teenagers organized a series of strikes to protest government inaction on the environment across the world. But there’s evidence that boomers are less convinced of the dangers of the rapidly unfolding climate crisis.
Boomers. The climate crisis. Christmas. Too much wine. It’s a potent mix. Once you’ve got Brexit out the way and conversation at the dinner table turns to our planet’s wanton destruction, it will pay to keep a cool, rational head. Here’s how to explain the climate crisis to more aged relatives in a way that maximizes the likelihood of persuasion and minimizes the likelihood of a festive blow-out!
The fact that it’s your family should put you at an advantage compared to attempting the same conversation with a stranger on the street. You know the person you’re speaking to, and therefore you can personalize your pitch.
Simply put, if you know that you’re talking to somebody who isn’t that concerned about climate change, but you know that they care a lot about people – they volunteer or they do charity work – you might come up with a narrative about climate change’s impact on people.
If you think that this moral dimension of harm is important to someone you know, that’s a frame that you could use, of course, but, and this is important, a rambling monologue does not an effective argument make. You need to actually listen to what people say and not just look for a gap to make your case.
Through this book, Gentle hopes to turn more of us older Americans from complainers and worriers into people who are fixing the problems that assail us. And with climate change now a bigger hotbed of topic on everyone’s mind than ever before, and with an increasing number of young people passionately advocating for climate action, Gentle encouraging us Boomers to rise up is as perfectly timed a chant now as it could ever have hoped to be.
About the Author - Michael Gentle is a former IT and data-privacy professional, and the author of a number of bestselling books on business and technology. He has lived and worked in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia-Pacific, and speaks several languages. He is now retired and lives in Setúbal, Portugal.
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