Yet another call for youth to save the planet.

Is it just me, or does that sound like the most lazy, annoying cop out ever? Consider:

... But young people are not cynical or jaded like many adults. They believe they can truly make a difference - and they can. ...

This may be true. It had better be true. And the reason it had better be true is because the people who say it have too often given up. So who else is going to do it?

It's deeply frustrating to me to to hear someone with 20-30 years worth of professional experience, social networking, capital accumulation and political influence say that what they're really waiting on is for a bunch of people with none of those advantages to come do what they couldn't manage. In the same vein, I know that leading figures in many activist issue camps, whether elected officials or NGO staff, hope that young people, or bloggers, or 'local' activists, really, anyone else, will get out and start rocking the boat so it doesn't have to be them. I've heard some version of this conversation too many times.

So, yes it would definitely be nice if the young people manage to fix the climate problem, and we should try, as should everyone else. It would be great if bloggers could manage all by ourselves to push the boundaries of debate and give cover to NGOs with large staffs and research budgets, or to elected officials with ready access to establishment media megaphones. But hey, a little help, that would make everything go better, right?

Yet time and again, the people who've been designated as leaders by the electoral process or getting high level promotions within powerful organizations so often fail to be out in front on important issues like global warming. They come over all Whitney Houston, with the "I believe the children are our future," (and we sang that song at my 6th grade graduation, to my enduring irritation) and defer actions to some shining white knights of the future whom they fantasize will take the reins when they're retired or whatever. Thing is, we absolutely don't have time for this nonsense, but I thought it might be useful to explore some possible reasons for it.