Don’t blame boomers for destroying the planet

A new charge has been added to the long list of ways in which we baby-boomers have supposedly blighted the prospects of the millennials. Along with our reluctance to downsize (despite the lack of decent retirement homes), the gold-plated pensions in our bank accounts (hollow laughter to that), and the future bequests we are squandering (less on cruises than on extortionate ‘social care’), is now this: ‘we’ trashed ‘their’ planet.

At least as infuriating as the charge itself is how many of my fellow boomers go along with it. This is in spite of recent research, from King’s College London, showing that older people are just as concerned about climate change as the young. It also ignores the reality of what we have actually done to look after the planet. Making no effort whatever to set the record straight, too many of those my age roll over apologetically and concede that, yes indeed, ‘nostra culpa, nostra maxima culpa’.