With his book “The Greatest Generation,” TV journalist Tom Brokaw bestowed a lasting coronation upon Americans born between the early 1900s and the mid-1920s.

Who could argue? They weathered the hardships of the Great Depression, paid with their blood and lives winning the brutal war against fascism, then powered an era of record prosperity.

But America is now in need of even greater heroics and sacrifice.

What we need now is “The Next Greatest Generation.”

Just as in 1920s and ’30s, today’s older generations have left their children a future filled with time bombs set to explode over the next few decades by the greatest enemy the world has ever faced — climate change. And older Americans have done little but watch the threat build and pass it on, or actively make it worse.

But the challenges it presents are arguably the steepest and most complicated any generation has ever faced because they cannot be won by physical courage alone.

Instead, victory in this war will require the new generation to reawaken some of the other qualities that previous greatest generation needed to win its war.

In a very short period, they must convince the nation it needs to be on a war footing, and accept the personal sacrifices that entails, because we face an existential threat to our way of life. They must then focus the nation’s technological and engineering skills to face unprecedented challenges.

You know, just like that other generation did during World War II.

If you think that’s hyperbole, consider just a few of the threats they must address, and soon.

Read the rest of the article at The Times-Picayune.