2015 Conference

Discussion Symposium

Our discussion symposium will explore the idea of generational change, and the roles and engagement of the older generation (senior citizens and elders) in achieving global sustainability. This symposium is intended to be a wide-ranging conversation that touches on topics such as:

• generational differences in the experiences of parents and children in facilitating major behavioral change
• research done on sustainability and the older generation
• stories from retired or soon-to-be retired AESS members on their post-retirement sustainability activities
• environmental-friendly products/facilities for senior citizens
• indigenous wisdom from aboriginal elders
• examples of environmentally active senior organizations such as Norway’s “Grandparents Climate Campaign”
• etc.

Natural Security and Elder Energy: Reimaging How Elderly Americans Improve Climate Change in Communities

Mark J O'Gorman, PhD

Older Americans will dominate US population changes in the next three decades, and yet scholarly and policy discussion lags behind on how this generation will impact, and aid, climate change policy.   Refocusing senior research away from their vulnerabilities and, instead, on how the daily choices of our elders shows pathways towards energy productivity policy actions for communities and governments can only improve America’s carbon footprint.  The US over-50 population more than doubles by 2040, but elder-age-cohort policy studies on work, transportation, housing, and electronic use lack a robust, integrative focus on how the elderly can positively impact US (and global) climate resilience.  That is unfortunate because, ironically, the simpler and energy-saving lifestyles seniors choose are precisely those that policy makers yearn to imbed in the entire US population.  Is it time to listen to our elders, once again, to better understand a next set of actions related to energy efficiency and climate resilience preparedness?  

Stereotyped as an exclusively vulnerable population, senior Americans exhibit economic and social choices that reveal cost-efficiencies and global footprint reductions that could form one strand of future US natural security policy.  To be sure, poor health and financial hardship are forcing elderly energy reduction choices.  But for the growing number who can and are able to choose, what energy-efficient and green construction housing choices, for example, are needed to combine elder accessibility and carbon footprint reductions for empty-nest parents looking to downsize?  How is the local trip-combining strategy by seniors a key in developing future carbon-reducing transportation platforms?  Can senior-aged electronic use (e-use) create work and social actions that improve energy productivity?

Data gathered from urban & rural elderly populations in Tennessee, building on European and North American eco-gerontological research, will support green elder-focused and carbon-efficient community development recommendations people of all ages will enjoy.