that next we shall become inured to it. So as to enjoy right up to >| when-the-data-is IN, is unarguable and--most become paralyzed in lugubrious imaginations.
No need to reorganize the deck-chairs so early.

Here are a couple projections from a--quite-worried-thus-sane--er, Millennial:
http://www.salon.com...e_planet_boomers/
http://www.salon.com...ogy_cant_save_us/

(But as a tyke and one able to escape to a chem/phys lab (in lieu of say, watching football games), I was afflicted early-on with some realization that:
"we" were glorifying throwing-stuff-away!--so that bizness could make/sell us more; consequently we were also perpetually wasting the energy that went into ... ... etc.)

And the term ecologist hadn't yet been invented! (IIRC--at least I didn't hear it til maybe 6-8 years after seeing ~what the game was.)
So ... while I can't claim any prescience that we could/really Would! continue that exact same raison d'etre over the rest of my life,
I can say that revelations over recent decades never surprised (as they proved sadly, that we never really Learn--in any large numbers.)

Methinks then, that the kid is likely right--also smarter than I at whatever his age--I never made the extrapolation explicitly nor argued with 'adults' on the topic.
It didn't occur to me that we really-Would--while seeing the cliff-edge in full perspective--KEEP ON-->
(as if entropy were some abstract physics thing we need not worry pretty-little-heads about.)
And: there were books all along (The Wastemakers, Silent Spring come to mind) probably bought by a few who also -and already- were not 'surprised'--just a guess.

Dumb-me/Smart-him. Poor Bastard: he will have to contend with the former-TV-mesmerized hordes in unimaginable circumstances--all-the-while realizing that,
Had "we" the Guts to Face consequences of our profligacy/greed-redifined-as-Good and the other fantasies:
with immediate and cooperative action, many/most? species Could have had at least a 60/40 Chance.

ie What Me Worry? Alfred E. Neuman!--think he was a William Gaines [MAD, EC Comics fame] creation.
(As the kid points out: the Power is with the Oil Companies and rest of the 0.01%--and they Will spend what it takes to choreograph all the next rounds of Disinformation.)
Will there be.. Murican suicide bombers? Movie at 11.

Meanwhile, what we can do is..
conjure up a large-enough Shock as promotes rapid-recovery of consciousness: a + pandemic. Easy-enough, eh?

Carrion.
Mahler Symphonies, decent Merlot, a few salvaged blameless animals? need only enough transistors for the audio system (solar backup as needed.) I'm good for the show.

And if the maya concept is near-to that ineffable Reality-thing: there may be a Cosmic Giggle anyway ;^>