The Role Reversal

As I write this on Dec. 3, sitting in my office in Minnesota, it is 52 degrees outside.  It's raining. On Nov. 10 four tornadoes hit Minnesota. There was a little snow just before Thanksgiving, but highs in the 40s and 50s have melted it all.

For 25 years we've been going to volleyball matches at the University of Minnesota. For years November and December were bearish months: it snowed half the time and traffic was always snarled. Traffic is still snarled these days, but for the last 10 years our drive has been marred by snow less than a handful of times.

Twenty-five years ago we had to wait till May for the snow to melt to play volleyball outdoors in the sand. We've been able to play in early March and April for several years now.

When I was a kid I had to walk a mile to school in hip-deep snow. Unlike my father, only one way was uphill.

I'm engaging in that age-old pastime of geezerhood: talking about how it used to be in the old days, complaining about how much it's changed, and how everything is going down the drain and kids these days don't know how easy they have it.

It's not just me. Scientists have documented global temperature increases, increased frequency of tornadoes, increased intensity and size of hurricanes like Sandy and Irene, which are fueled by higher ocean temperatures. They've documented the earlier springs and later falls and their effects on wildlife migration and reproduction. They've documented the opening of the Northwest Passage and the drastically smaller ice cap.

But, incredibly, millions of Republicans my age have completely forgotten what life was like 20 or 30 years ago. They insist that global warming is a hoax and that everything is completely normal and just like it always was.

In Doha, Qatar, the UN climate conference is in full swing. They've just released a report saying that rising CO2 levels will cause a global temperature increase of 4 to 6 degrees C by 2100. That will cause sea levels to rise more than three feet, 60% faster than was previously projected (actual measurements are in line with that faster pace).

Our local public radio station ran a segment this morning about young voters, how they propelled President Obama to re-election, and what they want the president to do. One of their top concerns was global warming.

Why are these kids willing to acknowledge the reality of global warming, while people who actually lived through those colder, snowier times refuse to acknowledge scientific evidence, as well as the evidence of their own senses?

Why have the roles of the young and the old reversed in this country? Why are supposedly responsible adults acting like spoiled children, putting their fingers in their ears and babbling to keep from hearing the truth?

I'm probably the first geezer to say this, but it seems our kids have more sense than their parents.