Elders and Climate Change: No Excuses

Abstract

Today’s elders, more than any other age group, bear responsibility for the threat of global warming and climate change. They—that is, we—need to acknowledge that responsibility. This statement may sound shocking to advocates for the aging. But we need to face up to it. We have a literature that recognizes older people as vulnerable to climate change (Gamble et al., 2013; Greenberg, 2014;). But the prevailing approach to elders and climate change is one-sided. We need to reject excuses that would make elders into victims but never into responsible agents. On the contrary, among all age groups, elders bear major responsibility for climate change because they have contributed to it more than...