I’ve heard, the best year to be born in the west (Europe, Australia, US, Canada), was 1955ish.
All you mentioned above was available to us but also more. Improving healthcare, fertility control, sexual revolution, HIV wasn’t in our youth, war wasn’t significant. We could imagine a future and have a decent chance of achieving it. The only big threat we lived with was nuclear annihilation, and fortunately we dodged that bullet.
I know how lucky I was to be born in Australia in 1960, how great a run I have had, and how I’m my small way I owe it to pay down some of my benefits to the next generation.
My problem, if any (though the “gen” issue isn’t really something I class as valid argument, only a pointer) is that many older people with money invest in dubious stocks, mostly unknowingly, in an act I can now safely call ignorance.
Pensions simply aren’t being picked apart and spread as they should be – away from warring and environmentally damaging industries. Government pensions are also invested in the wrong places, yet where are the older voices, those heard complaining?
Earning 8% on investment income, that reward often derived from overly leveraged assets that will, no doubt, cost the next generation, and even if only spending it on solar products, isn’t helping.
It’s the ignorance concerning me, or game-playing.
I was born in 1956 and do realise how lucky I am. Less lucky are my daughter, partner and granddaughter; I doubt they will ever know what it is to own their own house.
A very timely post. Do you think that wind turbine numbers will increase? It always strikes me that while seeing one is nice - I think they look fine and are the opposite of a blight on the view - why aren't there whole fields of them, or thousands of them out at sea, for example.
Onshore wind has been met with very substantial resistance by local residents over the last 2 decades, but offshore wind is very, very substantial. The UK is a global leader, with 2,880 active turbines off the coast, with a regular generating capacity of 16.5 GW which is the equivalent of over 5 Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant outputs, so big.
By 2030, if expansion continues at the current rate, the Uk will generate 50 GW by 2030.
Love this! That’s so heartening to read, it really is and if more people embrace them inland then the future looks a lot brighter. Thanks for going into so much detail but also explaining it for a luddite like me. I’m the guy who recorded tapes of Thin He Was and Filthy-Haired and brought them to a convention just to impress you when I was 17! Thanks for all the laughs and a few tears at the end of that book and others.
I think there is an hypocrisy issue. I am related to people who have been spectacularly fortunate with when and where they were born, but do not acknowledge that fact. Even worse they look down on young people who have been less fortunate, because they should have done “something” differently/ better.
I was born in the early 80s in middle class suburbia in the UK. I had it pretty good, including some fantastic sci-fi comedy on tv that I could continually quote with my friends at school.
It's anazing how many, including the yong of today do not believe in climate science, because (?)... i don't know. But science is the things that can be taken apart by people all over the world and put back together again to prove it works, which means we can make EVs all over the world, smartphones, and solar panels, unfortunatly also laser guided bombs, drones, and chemicals: some, food for people; some, food for plants; some, food for machines.
It would be good for people to stop and ask: do i trust the science/ scientist before i drive my car? Do i, before i board a plane? Do i, before i switch my oven on, my washing machine, or when i drink the water piped into my home?
Should i trust a scientist, or engineer to tell me about the laws of phyisics? Or should i listen to the laws of the marketplace?
You are right about the density. It was terrible, I had a whole lot of fillings because the dentist got paid when he did them and not when he didn’t, madness
I always felt my childhood and youth was in a magical and privelidged time. I have since wondered if everyone felt that way about the "good old days" . So maybe it was to some extent and we certainly need to do our best to make the world the best we can for our grandchildren.
I’ve heard, the best year to be born in the west (Europe, Australia, US, Canada), was 1955ish.
All you mentioned above was available to us but also more. Improving healthcare, fertility control, sexual revolution, HIV wasn’t in our youth, war wasn’t significant. We could imagine a future and have a decent chance of achieving it. The only big threat we lived with was nuclear annihilation, and fortunately we dodged that bullet.
I know how lucky I was to be born in Australia in 1960, how great a run I have had, and how I’m my small way I owe it to pay down some of my benefits to the next generation.
Thank you Robert.
My problem, if any (though the “gen” issue isn’t really something I class as valid argument, only a pointer) is that many older people with money invest in dubious stocks, mostly unknowingly, in an act I can now safely call ignorance.
Pensions simply aren’t being picked apart and spread as they should be – away from warring and environmentally damaging industries. Government pensions are also invested in the wrong places, yet where are the older voices, those heard complaining?
Earning 8% on investment income, that reward often derived from overly leveraged assets that will, no doubt, cost the next generation, and even if only spending it on solar products, isn’t helping.
It’s the ignorance concerning me, or game-playing.
I was born in 1956 and do realise how lucky I am. Less lucky are my daughter, partner and granddaughter; I doubt they will ever know what it is to own their own house.
A very timely post. Do you think that wind turbine numbers will increase? It always strikes me that while seeing one is nice - I think they look fine and are the opposite of a blight on the view - why aren't there whole fields of them, or thousands of them out at sea, for example.
Onshore wind has been met with very substantial resistance by local residents over the last 2 decades, but offshore wind is very, very substantial. The UK is a global leader, with 2,880 active turbines off the coast, with a regular generating capacity of 16.5 GW which is the equivalent of over 5 Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant outputs, so big.
By 2030, if expansion continues at the current rate, the Uk will generate 50 GW by 2030.
More details here: https://www.renewableuk.com/
Love this! That’s so heartening to read, it really is and if more people embrace them inland then the future looks a lot brighter. Thanks for going into so much detail but also explaining it for a luddite like me. I’m the guy who recorded tapes of Thin He Was and Filthy-Haired and brought them to a convention just to impress you when I was 17! Thanks for all the laughs and a few tears at the end of that book and others.
I think there is an hypocrisy issue. I am related to people who have been spectacularly fortunate with when and where they were born, but do not acknowledge that fact. Even worse they look down on young people who have been less fortunate, because they should have done “something” differently/ better.
I was born in the early 80s in middle class suburbia in the UK. I had it pretty good, including some fantastic sci-fi comedy on tv that I could continually quote with my friends at school.
I’m gonna be singing that song all day now. . .
It's anazing how many, including the yong of today do not believe in climate science, because (?)... i don't know. But science is the things that can be taken apart by people all over the world and put back together again to prove it works, which means we can make EVs all over the world, smartphones, and solar panels, unfortunatly also laser guided bombs, drones, and chemicals: some, food for people; some, food for plants; some, food for machines.
It would be good for people to stop and ask: do i trust the science/ scientist before i drive my car? Do i, before i board a plane? Do i, before i switch my oven on, my washing machine, or when i drink the water piped into my home?
Should i trust a scientist, or engineer to tell me about the laws of phyisics? Or should i listen to the laws of the marketplace?
You are right about the density. It was terrible, I had a whole lot of fillings because the dentist got paid when he did them and not when he didn’t, madness
Aient.
Bear in mind, Stromatalites, Volcanoes, a 23-21 wriggle in the angle of the Earth.
Oh yeah, giant meteorites…
All these things also cause rapid climate change. (Not saying it's a good thing).
More important, stop climate change, paint everything pointing upwards white.
I always felt my childhood and youth was in a magical and privelidged time. I have since wondered if everyone felt that way about the "good old days" . So maybe it was to some extent and we certainly need to do our best to make the world the best we can for our grandchildren.