the Warmest Generation

Hello Readers,

This morning I stumbled across an interesting climatic tid-bit, in a New York Times article about the temperature extremes this past month.

The fact, which jumped out at me, reminded me of a quote from the radio show a Prairie Home Companion about Lake Wobegone: "the little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve ... where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

However, the fact in the article is - unlike the No Child Left Behind mandate that all children achieve  'above average' test scores - entirely plausible albeit disturbing. As it turns out, according to a recent NOAA report, every child born since March of 1985 has only experienced months with temperatures above the global average temperature for the 20th Century!

Or as the NOAA website puts it: "February 2012 was the coolest February on record since 2008. However, February 2012 also marks the 324^th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20^th century average. The last month with below average temperatures was February 1985."

As someone born in the latter half of 1985, I have grown up hearing about older generations being called the 'Greatest' generation, the 'Baby Boom' generation, and 'Generation-X'. At the same time, I have heard the media try to apply a bevy of labels to my generation...'Millennials', 'Generation-Y',  'New Boomers', the 'Facebook' or 'Net' Generation... and the list goes on!

Of course all of these labels have been applied to my generation by older generations for arbitrary reasons: being young during the turn of the millennium, being born after 'Generation-X', being the children of 'Baby Boomers', the fact that we use the internet? None of these labels are have been made to define the challenge that our generation faces (such as the 'Greatest' generation or even the 'Baby Boom' generation) or as a response to the nuances of our generation's subculture (such as 'Generation-X').

In light of this new information about the climate during my entire lifetime, I propose that our generation claim the mantle of the 'Warmest Generation'. This label stands a testament to the circumstances into which we were born and the challenges that we must overcome. We were born at the end of or just after the so-called 'Cold War', and we have never known a climate as cool as our parents did. Accept it or not, our challenge is to prevent further global warming and possibly even reverse some of the warming that has already occurred while simultaneously setting a new global standard for non-violent political relations.

I challenge everyone from my generation to take up this mantle and this challenge!

Warmly,

Sean Diamond