Chlöe Swarbrick, a 25-year-old New Zealand Green Party politician gave a speech before Parliament about the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. In that Fall 2019 address she said, “How many world leaders, for how many decades have seen and known what is coming, but have decided that it is more politically expedient to keep it behind closed doors? My generation and the generations after me do not have that luxury.

“In the year 2050, I will be 56 years old, yet right now the average age of this 52nd parliament is 49 years old.”

She was then interrupted by Todd Muller, an older MP and member of New Zealand’s Centre-right National Party and opposition spokesperson for climate change. Without missing a beat, Swarbrick raised her hand and said, “OK Boomer,” instantly quieting her heckler. Her comment referred to Muller’s age and his generation of Baby Boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964. Swarbrick’s quick quip summed up her point: the Boomer generation is partly to blame for the planet’s current climate problems, yet they’re not doing enough to find and enact solutions.

Swarbrick continued, “Current political institutions have proven themselves incompetent at thinking outside of a short political term.”

Chlöe Swarbrick‘s “OK Boomer” comment went vital and has become a shorthand phrase for the tensions between the generations’ differing views of our global climate issues and ideas to implement change.