Every American generation has had its defining moment. These moments are often not known until much later when the gaze of history fall back upon them. It could be argued that my grandparents generation’s defining moment was the fight against fascism in WW2. My parents generation could be said to be the generation that brought us advances in civil rights, womens rights, and the spread of acceptance and diversity. What then is my generations moment, what will people 50 years from now remember about us. Its so hard to tell without the benefit of hindsight but I would wager a couple of guesses.

Guess one: “The savior generation”
We could be remembered as the generation that broke with tradition, buried the old ways and finally cleaned up the planet. We could be remembered as the generation that fought hard and won, renewable energy, sustainable life styles, and global fights against poverty. We could be remembered as the generation that rejected unilateral war, polluting energy sources, and “got it” when it comes to a sustainable life style. We could be lauded as the hero’s that broke the chain of endless war for oil, dirty air, dirty water, and global hunger. We were the ones that invented renewable agriculture, bio fuels, diverse renewable energy sources, and brought the world together. We stopped global warming in its tracks, and survived what effects were already with us with hard work and dignity. We treated all the worlds people like they were our neighbors, and realized that global warming raised all ships. We understood that poverty in Africa breed terrorists in America, we got it that famine in Asia lead to illness in California, we understood that with modern travel all the worlds people were in the same boat, and we acted accordingly. We Shepperded human kind through its most dire period and produced a world that was better than when we found it.

Guess two: “Generation Nothing”
We could be remembered as a nothing generation. The one that did nothing of interest. The one that left all its problems to the next generation. The ones that voted more for American Idol, than the American President. The one that couldn’t take its eyes off of the new model of whatever, to realize that we were using up all the worlds resources with little regard for tomorrow. The one that tried so hard to maintain the status quo that we allowed every illegal war, every sneaky land grab, and the degradation of all that America stands for. To become this generation all that we will need to do is, nothing. Keep watching TV, keep ignoring political happenings, keep driving your SUV, keep buying food from thousands of miles away, in short keep doing what we are doing.

Guess three: the “last generation”
We could be the last generation that really had the chance to do anything. We could be the generation that were here at the “end.” We could be the one that used up all the oil with nothing to replace it with. We could be the one that watch global warming ramp up, killing billions, while doing nothing. If we are really unlucky we could be the generation that sees the return of nuclear war, global famine, wars for water and oil, the breakdown of freedom and the end of modern life. We drove our SUV’s until the earth had enough and struck back. Rising oceans, the collapse of our unsustainable agriculture, lack of leaders due to voter apathy, rise in global poverty leading to revolts world wide, dyeing oceans, all combine to make us the last generation. All future people will live at subsistence levels.

These guesses of course could be so wrong as to be comical in 50 years. If my generation turns out to be one one of the last two, well lets hope the earth can handle such ruff use for another generation. Perhaps the grand kids that are not killed by one of the many problems facing the world today, will be able to do a better job than we did. Maybe its not too late.

But if any of the three guesses have any merit I for one want to be part of the savior generation rather than the other two. I want to sit on my porch when I become very old, sit and tell young people about how the sky used to be black with waste, and that people fought wars over this nasty black stuff called oil. I want to sit and tell old tales of the “bad old days” and watch there jaws drop with disbelieve. I want to tell them how there used to be poor people, how everyone used to fight all the time, and have them all think I am telling tall tales.