Teddy Bares

This quote from Theodore Roosevelt was from all the way back in 1907 during his Seventh Annual Message to the Congress. Despite being a statement that's a century old, I not only can't help but find his statement valid, but one that I personally agree with as well. Along with that, Roosevelt's quote has only become more prevalent and apparent over time, gaining more and more relevance as more and more generations have been born.

It's very fitting for Roosevelt to have this quote attributed to him considering his reputation as a woodsman. Teddy set aside 200 million acres of land for federal control and preservation, many of which were later turned into famous national parks nowadays due to his advocation for them.

Despite that, it's also very ironic for Roosevelt to have this quote attributed to him at the same time. Teddy was considered the first "modern president", one who bossed around Congress and lobbied for policies they wanted to lawmakers instead of just letting the legislative branch do whatever they wanted. As such, Teddy set the precedent for the presidents after him who would later ruin the environment he tried so hard to protect. Ironically enough, despite his attempts to preserve the environment, Teddy indirectly led to its modern dilapidated state.

The environment nowadays is being used for almost the exact inverse of what Roosevelt supported. Natural resources being used and stripped more than ever, due to the heightened population leading to increased demand for tools combined with the lack of restrictions on corporations. And due to advancements in technology and machinery, it's only become easier to harvest natural resources, leading to not just increased harvests, but automated ones at that.

Roosevelt was completely correct about the dangers of exhausting the environment for natural resources, even 100 years ago. And I personally have to agree with what he said, especially nowadays where natural resources are being harvested more than ever. 

However, despite agreeing with it, the first half of Teddy's quote is actually the less important part to me. I mean, everyone knows the environment is in a terrible state and being overexhausted for resources, nothing's groundbreaking there. Instead, it's the second half of what Teddy said that stands out to me much more.

Recently, there has been a bit of controversy and concern about what elder generations are going to leave the modern ones. The generational divide isn't exactly a new topic, and I don't exactly want to pick sides, but there's been a very clear difference in the quality of the world that certain generations have entered. Especially in terms of one hot button topic; global warming.

Boomers entered a very stable global environment, Millennials entered with early signs of global warming, and Gen Z and Alpha have entered a world nearly on fire. And all this isn't exactly helped by the causes of global warming being linked to carbon emissions, deforestation, oil usage, and the general depletion of the environment's resources, which is all stuff that spiked during the time of Boomers and is currently being headed by CEOs of harvesting companies who are also Boomers. There's a tremendous margin separating how Boomers and Gen X have treated the environment compared to Millennials and Gen Z, and how each generation has tried to make it better for the ones following them.

I have almost the exact same gap between me and my grandfather's age as he does with Teddy Roosevelt, and while I don't want to diss my grandfather... There's a clear difference between how Teddy Roosevelt tried to preserve and keep the environment clean for his grandkids, and how my grandfather has tried, or lack thereof, to preserve and keep the environment clean for his grandchildren. I mean, my grandfather doesn't even believe in global warming, meanwhile Teddy Roosevelt set aside millions of acres for the expressed purpose of giving people trees that wouldn't be cut down.

Most of this controversy is also only being heightened by the positions of power that allow people to change and reform the exhaustion of the environment before it's truly too late, like CEOs of harvesting companies and seats in Congress, being held by stubborn older generations.

Of course, there's always a flipside to contend with as well. Terry Tempest Williams was also born as a Boomer, and yet in her work, she not only talks about how the government led by older generations destroyed the environment for her, but also damaged her family as well. Boomers themselves were the generation of rock’n'roll, hippies, and Vietnam War protesting. It's not like they didn't fight back against the system too or didn't have people damaging the environment when they were our age either.

It's hard to argue that somehow the entirety of global warming or harm to the environment lies squarely on the Boomer generation, when they not only had to deal with damage to the environment in their own time, but when there was damage to the environment before they were even born, as shown by Teddy's comment.

Overall, I can't help but find Teddy's quote not only very true, but even more applicable nowadays. In modern times, there has been far more concern for both the environment and the world ancestors are leaving behind for their children. When Teddy Roosevelt first took out over 200 million acres of land for preservation, he was chastised and critiqued endlessly. But nowadays, who knows where we would be without his national park system or protests to stop deforestation in the Amazon, or efforts to cut back on plastic usage.

If people can learn to stick up for the environment, it's not that unreasonable to imagine people can learn to leave a better world for their successors. And even if Millennials and Gen Z don't leave behind a better environment with less global warming for future generations, it'd still be pretty hard to do a worse job than Boomers and Gen X did.