My grandfather was part of the Greatest Generation.  Toughened by wars and depression, they were patriotic nation-builders.

Their monuments are long-term productive assets like the Mount Isa and Broken Hill mines; smelters and refineries; the Wollongong Steelworks; the Sydney Harbor Bridge; the transcontinental railway; the overland telegraph line; the Yallourn coal mines and power stations; the Kalgoorlie Goldfields; the Weipa and Gladstone bauxite industries; Pilbara Iron; the Perth-Kalgoorlie pipeline; the Kidman Cattle Empire; the world's biggest merino flock; QANTAS; the Holden car; the Sunshine Harvester; and a network of roads, railways, towns, ports, and airports. They survived floods, droughts, bushfires, and plagues of mice, rabbits, grasshoppers, and prickly pear to develop an agricultural industry that provides food and fibre for millions of consumers.  They welcomed millions of hardworking migrants to farms and factories and celebrated the arrival of "clean coal energy by wire" to every home.  They created parks and planted forests.

The Greatest Generation made sure their kids behaved at school and did their homework.  Mostly kids were "seen but not heard."  The kids walked, rode bikes, or rode horses to school, and parents reinforced school discipline.

Our lives are now controlled by the Green Generation, who follow a globalist agenda.  This generation has devalued science, engineering, and trade skills and pollute education curricula with the mantras of the green religion.  Now they mobilize noisy truant kids for political rallies.

Too many of the Green Generation specialize in obstruction, demolition, and delay while themselves consuming the assets of the past.  They cheer the demolition of coal-fired power plants and use green lawfare to stop or delay almost everything else.  Among their battle trophies are South Australian and Victorian coal mines and power stations, most new industry proposals in Tasmania, much offshore oil exploration, new dam proposals in every state, every new coal development proposal, gas exploration, and fracking.  They hope to hang the scalps of Adani Coal, Rocky Point Coal, Wandoan Coal, and all Galilee Basin developments on their trophy wall.  Australia has huge uranium resources, but nuclear power is banned.

Nowhere is the contrast between the generations more stark than in the Snowy Mountains.

The Greatest Generation planned, financed, and built the Snowy Hydroelectric Scheme (without U.N. direction or advice).  This nation-building project captures Snowy water, uses it to generate reliable electricity, and diverts the water to irrigate towns, orchards, and crops on the dry western plains.

The Green Generation supports Snowy Hydro 2, a hollow-shelled project that steals electricity from the grid and water from Snowy 1 to pump water uphill and then recovers part of that electricity by letting the water run back down again (when their intermittent green energy fails).  It will be a big, power-consuming, expensive battery.

The sad history of Whyalla is instructive.  The Greatest Generation built an iron mine, a steel works, and a great shipbuilding enterprise there.  Most of it is idle now.  This generation of technophobes is trying to build foreign nuclear-powered submarines there but with diesel-electric engines (presumably running on biofuel).  The British navy that ruled the world ran on coal for the warships and bread, salt beef, lard, limes, and rum for the sailors.  Today's green dreamers hope to feed the multisexual crew on nuts and raisins and use the alcohol to power the motors.

A truly modern navy runs on nuclear fuel.

But is this Australia's next warship under construction?