Daniel Farafonow 

Climate change has been recognised by many different people and is spoken about by governments, ecologists, and regular individuals. You may see young activists on the internet and think they represent a generation of teens well-informed on global warming, but most teens don’t usually express their opinion in that way. In this article, I am going to talk about the actual awareness of climate change among the teens. 

According to research by Yale, 35% of teens understand that most scientists know about global warming, while 39% of adults do, 75% of teens know coal is a fossil fuel, but 80% of adults know it, 62% of teens say that moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy will prevent global warming, compared to 63% of adults have the same view and 80% of adults think the global warming is happening, while 75% of teens are aware of it. (Leiserowitz, A., Smith, N., & Marlon, J. (2011) 

However, sometimes the youth know more about climate change than adults. For example, 57% of teens say global warming is partially caused by man, while only 50% of adults agree. 77% of teens understand that the greenhouse effect is the result of gasses trapped in the atmosphere, compared to 66% of the adults. 52% of teens know carbon dioxide traps Earth’s heat, versus 45% of adults, and 71% of teens understand that carbon dioxide is made by burning fossil fuels, while only 67% of adults do. 

On the whole, teens seem to be less aware of some factors concerning global warming and climate change than adults, but sometimes they know more than those older than them. It appears that our society’s youth and adults are aware of what is happening to our planet, but can we actually act in other ways than protests, demonstrations, and activism, and prevent it with whatever power we have? 

Sources: 

Leiserowitz, A., Smith, N., & Marlon, J. (2011). American teens’ knowledge of climate change. Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2016/02/2011_04_American-Teens’-Knowledge-of-Climate-Change.pdf