More than half of teens say they're 'afraid' and 'angry' about climate change — and 1 in 4 of them are doing something about it

But today’s youth aren’t sitting by and watching it happen. According to a new poll by the Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation, 57% of US teenagers are afraid of climate change when asked how climate change made them feel. But in the same survey, 54% of teens also responded that they were motivated and 52% said they were angry. One in four has already taken action in the form of a school walk-out, protest, or by reaching out to a government official, according to the poll.

Compared to adults who took the same survey, teens also feel more guilty about climate change than their adult counterpoints. However, 10% fewer teens feel hopeless compared to adults in the study.

Nearly 1.4 million young people stretching across 123 different countries walked out of class on Friday, March 15, to protest the lack of action taken towards avoiding a climate change catastrophe.

Again it’s not a poll going into the reasons for or against climate change – just reflecting how the youth feel overall versus adults. It’s about perceptions and attitudes. The youth is the future so I expect we’ll see different attitudes amongst lawmakers down the line. I’m wondering how a future generation or two will look back on our generation with hindsight? At least for the generation preceding us, they could say they really knew no better as the evidence around climate change was just not mainstream or widely known. Humans, of course, are also not known for widely embracing change very quickly so maybe our generation will defend itself as becoming aware and starting to raise awareness… Personally, I think we are going to see issues around climate change and the environment becoming far more intense in the next 5 years. Many industries are readying themselves for big changes not only for climate but also around robotics and machine learning.

See https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-half-teens-fear-activism-poll-2019-9?IR=T

#climatechange #environment #youth
#^More than half of teens say they’re ‘afraid’ and ‘angry’ about climate change — and 1 in 4 of them are doing something about it