Friday, April 22, 2011

"Generation Hot"

Here's a term that needs to go global/viral in emergency time, courtesy of Mark Hertsgaard, author of the new book, Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth.

It's "Generation Hot," Hertsgaard's term for "the two billion kids who have been born around the world since we were put on notice about this problem in June of 1988 by Jim Hansen, the NASA scientist, who went to the Senate and said, 'Look, this is happening. If we don’t do something about it, we’re threatening the habitability of this planet.'

As the victims of extreme weather all around the planet know very well now, the US Senate chose to sit on its stupid ass and do nothing (and we are shocked and stunned by this, right?) And last week the US House, which is fifty times more stupid than the 1988 Senate, voted by 248-171 that there is no such thing as climate change taking place.

Says Hertsgaard, "My daughter and her generation are going to have to live with this. And I think that’s a terrible crime."

We do, too.

The full interview with Hertsgaard is here.