We’ve got a generation of kids out there protesting inaction on climate change today. I was just thinking why my generation wasn’t doing the same thing.

I was born in 1982. Apparently Gen Y/Millennial. Looking after the environment, reducing pollution, doing your bit, all of that was drummed into us again and again. And it seemed, as a kid, like everyone was onboard with this (i.e. the adults). Cleanup Australia Day started when i was a young kid. It exemplified this idea that we all had to look after the environment. We even had cartoons, Captain Planet further beating into us how we needed to care, how important and precious our planet was.

So now I’m in my mid 30s. I don’t give a shit about the environment. I don’t give a shit about climate change. Beyond accepting that things are gonna get a whole lot more fucked up in my remaining lifetime.

What I came to learn as I got older, was that all of the messaging about saving the environment and the planet drummed into me as a kid was a lie. We were lied to. We were made to believe that everyone cared about this, it was crucial, critical we all act.

What I’ve seen in my life, is the generations above me, Gen X the Baby Boomers - doing nothing, complete inaction. I’ve seen corporations (led by the above generations) trash the place, destroy whole ecosystems, with no accountability. Oil spills, nuclear meltdowns, chemical explosions, its all happened in my lifetime. I’ve seen politicians (also of that generation) corrupted with influence from the fossil fuel heavyweights. The wealthy elite (again of that generation) protecting their money, their investments, the status quo, and sabotaging any action on climate change that could get in the way of their precious wealth.

So why would I give a shit. I’m disillusioned because I was brought up as a kid to care about something that the adults, i learned, didn’t.

We didn’t protest as kids in the 80s and 90s, or even the 00s - because we were being fooled into thinking stuff was being done. That the adults, the corporations, the governments of the world were all working on this. But they weren’t.