So many have commented on a growing enchantment with nature that comes with age. As well as a growing disenchantment with humanity. The life-cycle hypothesis strikes again: an ageing world would be increasingly concerned with the environment, to use a rather technical term. It must—for at least two reasons.

Addendum (May 17, 2003)

Modigliani the painter? No, Modigliani the economist and Nobel laureate who hypothesized that people’s saving habits would change with their age. The older they get, the less they save. This has far-reaching economic consequences. He taught at MIT for many years, and my first wife was his secretary for a while. She liked him so much that she introduced me to him and his wife soon after we met. They were a bit like family to her, and she wanted to show off her future husband. I was at Harvard then. And I was twenty-four. Back then I could not care less about the life-cycle hypothesis.