Hope and change, the next generation

It was very much in the spirit of yesterday's dawn post, specifically its confidence in the rising generation's capacity to finally grapple with the climate crisis and the other horrible challenges my generation has in its turn punted to them, that I sat down to draft and record a promotional blurb for my upcoming Environmental Ethics course in the Fall. Yes they can. 

For the past several years, in alternate Fall semesters, I've taught the Environmental Ethics course at MTSU--always a little differently, with a variety of texts and approaches, but always with the firm conviction that no greater challenge faces humanity than that of learning to live responsibly, respectfully, and sustainably on the earth, "the only home" (as Carl Sagan said of our "pale blue dot") we've ever known."

That conviction once again fuels the approach we'll take this Fall, along with a sobering recognition that, like the other pressing challenges of our time including the COVID-19 pandemic of the past several months and the recent civil unrest protesting tragic incidents of racial injustice, meeting the climate challenge will require mutual support and concerted, constructive action.

Environmental Ethics is not just another arid academic research subject, it's an existential roadmap to a livable future for our children and theirs, and for the myriad other forms of life that make up what pioneering ecologist Aldo Leopold called the biotic community.

This fall's course will also reflect the hopefulness of a new generation, your generation, class of 2020-something, that in many ways is beginning to stand up, speak up, and insist (with the courageous young woman Greta Thunberg) that there is a tomorrow and you'll not stand for the short-sighted indifference of an older generation that acts, like Dr. Seuss's "Onceler" in The Lorax, as if their time was the only time that matters.

 I saw a tweet from Julian Castro last night that reinforces my hopefulness, not least because it shines a positive light on young people in the St. Louis suburb I grew up in, a place I never knew to be progressive in any but an avaricious booster's sense. It was red, before that color was co-opted by the Grand Old Party.

Jalen is only 17 years old, but organized a march in O’Fallon, Missouri, that brought together thousands.

Our country’s future is in good hands. pic.twitter.com/td43seYgot

— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) June 3, 2020

I think Jalen speaks for many more of his cohort than has generally been appreciated. If they can march, they can vote. Again, the slogan of hope redux: Yes they can.