“To be young and aware is to suspect that, in the end, the debate about climate action isn’t about substance, but about rich old men trying to squeeze every last dollar, euro, and yen from their investments in outdated industries. It is to agree with the environmentalist Paul Hawken that we have an economy that steals the future, sells it in the present, and calls it GDP. It is to begin to see your elders as cannibals with golf clubs.”

—  Alex Steffen

The GOOD Guide to COP15: The Fire this Time: Copenhagen and the War for the Future, 18 November 2009 http://www.good.is/post/The-GOOD-Guide-to-COP15-The-Fire-this-Time-Copenhagen-and-the-War-for-the-Future/,

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To be young and aware is to suspect that, in the end, the debate about climate action isn’t about substance, but about …" by Alex Steffen?
Alex Steffen photo
Alex Steffen 11
American writer and futurist 1968

Related quotes

Paul Hawken photo

“We have an economy where we steal the future, sell it in the present, and call it GDP [gross domestic product].”

Paul Hawken (1946) American environmentalist

Paul Hawken Top 10 Myths About Sustainability http://www.mindfully.org/Sustainability/2009/Myths-About-Sustainability9mar09.htm at mindfully.org, 2009.

Jeffrey D. Sachs photo

“The intensity of these storms is terrifying. They are…the intensity is rising because of climate change. This isn’t about the future – it’s about right now.”

Jeffrey D. Sachs (1954) American economist

Climate, Welfare..., Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 15 October, 2018 http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s4892252.htm
Context: The intensity of these storms is terrifying. They are... the intensity is rising because of climate change. This isn’t about the future – it’s about right now. And yet, a senator in Florida today said, “I don’t know where climate change comes from.” What is the matter with these people? How dare they either hold the office if they really don’t know, which is not the point, or they’re so corrupt in taking oil money that they pretend that they don’t know? And so, that’s the real story here. The governments are not representing you properly right now. Because the planet is facing profound dangers, we’re all at risk, and our governments need to act. And they promised that they would act, and they’re not acting right now.

Jesse Ventura photo
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez photo
Shane Claiborne photo
Eric Garcetti photo
Thich Nhat Tu photo
Bertrand Russell photo

“Two men who differ as to the ends of life cannot hope to agree about education.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Source: 1930s, In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays (1935), Ch. 12: Education and Discipline

Bill Nye photo

“We have overwhelming evidence that the climate is changing. That you cannot tie any one event to that is not the same as doubt about the whole thing. There is no debate in the scientific community.”

Bill Nye (1955) American science educator, comedian, television host, actor, writer, scientist and former mechanical engineer

[NewsBank, Bill Nye , ‘the science guy,’ vs. Marsh Blackburn, the climate change skeptic congresswoman, Knoxville News Sentinel: Blogs, Knoxville, Tennessee, February 17, 2014]

Related topics