When the issue of climate change comes up, many people are quick to dismiss it. It’s similar to how when we are young we can find ourselves feeling invincible. “That may be dangerous/bad/scary but it will never happen to me. It will never affect my life.” While we have learned by this age that we are not immortal, there are still many people who do not think that climate change will directly affect them, and some people that do not believe in climate change at all.
I used to think about climate change as a thing of the future. I knew that the environment was in trouble and about the green movement, but I still had a hard time understanding that the damaging effects of climate change were approaching rapidly. Being from Berkeley, California I have been reusing, recycling, composting and conserving my whole life, but I was still under the impression that climate change was not going to create any serious problems until after I was long gone.
Reading stories such as “Diary of an Interesting Year” by Helen Simpson and “The Siphoners” by David Mitchell really struck me with the dates they included: 2033 and 2040. I will be 39 and 46 during those years; not elderly, not dead, but middle aged. As I realized this, I started to do some research about our generation, the millennials, and their ideas on climate change. I stumbled across this article in National Geographic that was making many claims about how millennials care much more and are more educated about climate change than our parents’ generation. This was really interesting to me because of all the claims that have been made about our generation by older generations, such as how lazy, tech-obsessed and unmotivated we are.
The article presented an interesting poll in which they asked a series of questions to both millennials and seniors regarding how their votes would be impacted by candidates’ policies on climate change. In this poll, 57% of millennials and 33% of seniors said that they would be more likely to vote for candidates who support decreased coal use, 62% of millennials and 48% of seniors would vote for a candidate if utilities were to be required to obtain a portion of their electricity from renewables, and 43% of millennials and 22% of seniors favored a candidate who would impose a “carbon tax” to reduce the burning of fossil fuels (National Geographic). These percentages suggest that our generation is more concerned, informed, and dedicated to helping with climate change.
The first four minutes of this video do a really good job of summarizing the thoughts of our generation today. Most of us have grown up learning about and fighting this issue of climate change, but we need to make sure that everyone is fully informed and driven on their own. It’s not one person’s problem, it’s all of ours. I do not want to live in the kind of world predicted by our class readings, do you?
It’s great to see that in our generation and future ones, climate change is becoming more important. In the video I saw the same message come up; climate change is happening, yet no one is really doing anything about it. We can’t really rely on others (older generation), we have to act on it ourselves!
After watching the video, it really makes me wonder what we millennials can truly accomplish to help our planet. Assuming that politicians from our generation will run on platforms on how to help the Earth and in what ways could we really cut carbon emissions. I agree with you, I think that it is really up to us to save the environment (well as this point salvage what we have left) because previous generations really screwed up.
I really liked your video that you posted. I thought it was really motivational and relevant to most people’s thoughts on climate change. I do agree with what you said about how most people don’t think that climate change will happen to them, which is why they are so quick to dismiss it. I think that people who don’t believe in climate change and don’t believe it will happen to them feel that way because climate change hasn’t affected them personally, so they think that it will never affect them. It is a tough situation to deal with when everyone isn’t trying to help fix the problem that we as humans have created and contributed to.
I love the link to the article that voices our generation’s concern about climate change. I definitely didn’t think it would affect me while I was still alive but I now know that’s not the case at all. It’s cool to see that so many more people care than I originally thought, and that there are so many things our generation can do to prevent this change from happening so quickly and keep our world from becoming one similar to the readings from class, at least for a while longer.
Your link to the National Geographic article was very interesting and surprising to me. It was unexpected, in my opinion, to read that young adults are (much) more willing to take initiatives to prevent climate change and lower greenhouse gasses in comparison to seniors 65 and older. It’s comforting to know that as a whole, our generation is really trying to take charge and address the issues of climate change and renewable energy on the large scale.
Thank you for this hopeful post Maria! It always inspires me to think about our generation’s energy and creativity and all the ways we are already working towards addressing climate change — and not just climate change but many other important social & environmental problems in the world today. Oftentimes our generation gets tagged as being lazy or uncaring, but I think that is far from the truth. What I like about the video is how so many of the young people interviewed are talking about community focused and collective action. It’s not about recycling or driving a different kind of car, but re-imagining the kind of world we want to live in and working together to create such a world.
I think it’s also important to recognize that there are people from older generations who also care deeply about climate change; for instance, check out this group of “grandparents against climate change”: http://www.staycool4grandkids.org/ One thing interesting to think about is whether there are particular difficulties in communicating climate change to different generations. For instance, have any of you had experience trying to talk about climate change (or related problems) with your parents or grandparents, or other people who are older than you? If so, what are those conversations like?
Also, do you think climate change fiction/literature (cli-fi) can bridge generational gaps and speak to different age groups?
Great post and comments!
Its interesting that they recycle in Berkeley. It great to hear because most of California doesn’t think its a big deal. Growing up in Oregon, that was always a focus of ours and I love hearing that it was important in Berkeley.
I was in the same boat as you, thinking that Climate Change would be a thing of the far future. It’s crazy how fast it’s actually progressing and how it’s effects are already manifesting. I think it’s awesome that millennials are invested in the future and wish to make a difference. It means there is still hope in changing the current climate course and hopefully mitigating some of it’s more serious effects.