Environmental superhero

If you’ve had conversations with young people about the environment, you’ll be familiar with a certain amount of pushback when you suggest they need to do something to mitigate the environmental crisis. Understandably, they often say something along the lines of: “hold on a minute, we didn’t cause the environmental crisis. Why is it our responsibility to fix it?”

It’s true: the young didn’t cause the environmental crisis (although of course, none of us who enjoy the spoils of international trade such as cheap electronics and clothes are entirely innocent, even the young). However, the unfortunate reality is that most of the work required over the coming years to course-correct the environmental crisis will have to be done by the young, simply because they will comprise the majority of working people. So how do we compensate the young for having to clean up a mess that is mostly not of their own making?

First, course-correcting the environmental crisis is going to require historically unprecedented amounts of work. We need to establish an Environmental Corps comprising millions of young people who can perform environmental remediation tasks. Members of the Environmental Corps should be given high-quality training, assigned jobs that have some relation to their natural talents, and paid a decent wage for their efforts. In short, the first way we compensate the young for having to fix the environment is literally to pay them. Many people would welcome the opportunity to be paid to train and then work on such tasks.

Second, we need to foster a culture where working on environmental remediation tasks results not only in a decent wage, but cultural capital. Big business and the media have successfully managed to generate cultural capital around being a social media influencer and other forms of mindless celebrity, so it shouldn’t be too hard to generate it around something of genuine value. It’s even possible to imagine how such cultural capital could translate into erotic capital: now that’s motivation!

Third, we need to establish an annual holiday that celebrates the crucial work done by the young people of the Environmental Corps. The whole nation should down tools for this holiday and serve the needs of Environmental Corps workers, from the Head of State, right down to family members and friends. These guys are literally going to be world-saving superheroes, and they will deserve our thanks on a regular basis.

Fourth, we need to start telling their story in various cultural domains to ensure their efforts are preserved for posterity. The work undertaken by the Environmental Corps will establish a legacy that will last for many generations: indeed, their work may be the only thing that allows for the possibility of many generations. We should take steps to ensure their sacrifices are never forgotten.

In short, we need to acknowledge that it is indeed unfair that so much is being asked of young people, but also that this is unavoidable. While this is a bitter pill to swallow, we can make things better for young people by providing them with ample support, and both celebrating and rewarding their hard work.