Thoughts on Becoming a Grandfather:

As I write this document, my first grandchild is in the process of being

born about 500 miles north of here. I’m praying for a safe delivery.
This is a good time to reflect on the world she is coming into and which
she will inherit down the line. She will be one of a growing number of
kids with a diverse, international background (Polish, Swedish, German
and Chinese). She will probably be bilingual and live in different parts
of the world through her life. I feel very good about her chances for a
good life with health, food, shelter, education, interesting experience
and supportive family.

But her life experience will be different from mine in many ways. By
the time she is 40 or 50 the population of this planet will likely
(hopefully) be leveling off at 9-10 Billion and the average age of people
will have been getting steadily older. I can’t predict what will happen
to the economic order or what will have happened when my baby-
boom generation almost inevitably breaks or greatly alters our social
systems (social security, Medicare, elder care…). I hope that she will
be able to look back to our time and wonder why it took us so long to
shift from fossil fuels to whatever forms of energy her generation will
be using.

I wish I could be sure that the world she will experience in adulthood
will be good. I’m a great believer in the potential for human innovation
to deal with issues as they emerge, but some issues worry me
significantly and move me towards action to try to prevent them from
compromising her world:

Hyper-partisanship

If we are going to meet the challenges of the next several decades we

are going to need a system of government that can make hard choices
and reach workable compromises. The tenor of US politics today
makes this increasingly unlikely. Both ends of the political spectrum
seem to be devoid of statesmanship and little interested in serving the
interests of anyone put the party/cause. The rhetoric is increasingly
hostile and particularly on the Right tends towards eliminationism. I
am particularly disturbed by the sort of speech and attitude that is
becoming more common among some of my fellow Christians – it
makes me think of the passage, “…most people’s love will grow cold.”
(Matthew 24:12). I will speak-out against hyper-partisanship as much
as I can.

Anti-Science
As a scientist I am deeply concerned by the diverse range of forces
that are threatening to undermine the engine of science and
technology that has done so much to improve human life, particularly
over the last century. I see a population that is uninformed about
many of the basics of science and almost completely ill-equipped to
keep up with the ever-accelerating pace of scientific knowledge.
Perhaps in reaction to that, many are tending towards “vitalist” beliefs
like the progressively less scientific belief in the superiority of
“Organic”, “BioDynamic”, or “Raw food.” Many are easily frightened
by the vast industry I will call “FEAR, Inc.” from things like rBST, GMOs,
and, worst of all, vaccines. If this trend continues, my great
grandchildren will face scourges like Polio that nearly killed my mother
80 years ago and should have been long eradicated from human
experience. There are growing segments of the population that are
willing to casually reject the science on complex topics they barely
understand like evolution or climate change. I will speak-out against
anti-science in any way I can.

Bad Science

I hold my fellow scientists responsible for some of this trend. Scientists

basically “suck” at communication. We write in convoluted, “precise”
language and then let the results be hidden behind “pay-walls”. When
I’m trying to refute some distortion of information coming out of FEAR
Inc., I all-to-frequently find that the paper I need is unavailable to me
unless I’m willing to pay >$20 to see it. There are also many scientists
who are guilty of “agenda science,” doing studies with the goal of
supporting a world-view, not with the goal of understanding the truth
or finding the best alternative. This is particularly rife within the vast
academic ranks of pro-Organic scientists. We scientists are also really
bad at dealing with issues that become intensely political, as the
“Climate-gate” event demonstrated. I will speak-out against bad
science as much as I can and I will try to find ways to help scientists
communicate better.

Cultural Extinction

Demographic trends point to the declining influence of several major

world cultures as countries sink to extremely low birth rates. Japanese
and Russian cultures are already in serious decline, and most European
nations are as well. Chinese culture is going to face a strange and
uncharted future demographic landscape because of the one-child
policy. Various Islamic cultures will be a major part of the last gasp of
human population increase, so that by the middle of my grand
daughter’s life, Muslims will be a much larger proportion of the world
population. I realize that there are many different sub-cultures within
Islam, but some of those have beliefs that are incompatible with the
other major world cultures, and conflict with the relatively recent and
partial “consensus” about basic human rights, the role of women, and
international law. I’m not saying that one or any of the various world
cultures is perfect – they certainly are not, but these trends lead to an
unknown that makes me uncomfortable for my grand daughter’s
future. I really don’t know what to “do” about this issue (as if I have
any influence at all).

Conclusions

I don’t know if I have a conclusion. It may seem weird for me to be

thinking about such heavy stuff at an exciting moment like this. To
assure you that I’m at least semi-normal I’ll say a little about what else
I’m thinking.
I’m excited to watch this young one (and hopefully more) grow up. I’m
excited to watch my son and daughter-in-law negotiate the job of
parenting – I think they will be great parents. I look forward to spoiling
this kid when I can, teaching her about gardening, and about my
vineyard. I look forward to showing her my favorite places in the world
like Western Colorado, New Zealand, Northern Italy and our San Diego
beaches. I’ll do my best to make sure she hears important music like
the “The Goldberg Variations”, “The Sultans of Swing,” “The Messiah,”
and “Alice’s Restaurant.” I’ll make sure she eventually watches “The
Princess Bride” and “The King of Hearts.” I look forward to eventually
talking to her about my faith and about science and why I don’t find
them in conflict. I seriously doubt that she will grow up to have
anything to do with agriculture – very few people do, but I hope to be
able to give her some perspective on why she should appreciate the
few people that do grow our food.

Happy news! About 5 hours after I wrote this, we got this picture of
baby Kay Savage. 7 lb 15 oz. Mother and baby doing great!
The Author/grandfather: Steve Savage. Born 1955 in Denver.
Educated at Stanford and UC Davis. Worked for Colorado State
University, DuPont and Mycogen. Independent Consultant since 1996
working with just about every small and large, public and private entity
in the agricultural technology space. I am also a blogger for some time
on “sustainablog.com” and now deciding where to continue to write.