We are living on a rapidly warming planet. Mitigation of that warming (once the mitigation actually begins) cannot have any impact on the already built-in warming for a least a generation (or longer). The oceans are already at record warmth. Heat waves are breaking records. Glaciers are melting at unprecedented speed. Serious disruptions of human life, economics, and political stability are imminent.

Unfortunately, we are still pumping carbon pollution into the atmosphere with serious efforts at mitigation no where on the world’s action agenda. The foreseen horror is paralyzing to critical thinking and we are floundering in our indecisiveness.

In the rich world that I am part of, what pathways are available to a graduating high school student being 18 years old?

Go to university for a typical 4 to 7 years and earn a graduate degree in science, economics, or business? What kind of world will there be in 2030? And 10 years beyond that what kind if career path would exist?

Or, should an 18 year old who is aware of the unfolding climate crisis seek out a sustainable community somewhere that is preparing for life on a hot planet (hoping that we avoid nuclear war during collapse)?

I don’t know what I would do. I don’t know as a young person if I would believe that the future is so altered from what the generations before me experienced.