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They grew up in a pandemic. They have matured in the age of strongman leaders. The climate crisis is engulfing their lives.
Generation Z, cohort born after 1996inherited a number of compound uncertainties.
To some extent it explains the mood of the youth climate movement. It focuses more and more on the decentralized and unjust effects of global warming, fueled by anger and insecurity.
The global youth movement known as Fridays for the Future called on its members to stage protests around the world on Friday, March 25.climate compensation and justice”
Here’s what I find most revealing about this generation of climate activists:
They don’t trust the state
Inside 10,000 people survey Among 16 to 25-year-olds in 10 countries, three-quarters said they thought “the future is scary”. The survey was funded by an advocacy group called Avaaz, led by researchers at the University of Bath in England and published in The Lancet in December. Participants were asked to answer a series of questions as “yes”, “no” or “prefer not to say”.
More than 64 percent said their governments were “not doing enough to prevent a climate catastrophe”; more than 61 percent said they did not trust their government; and more than 58 percent said their government had “betrayed” them.
In the US they are mostly female and white.
Research by sociologist Dana Fisher of the University of Maryland found that those who have participated in climate protests in the United States over the past five years have been mostly women and predominantly white. they respect racial justice and equality as central concerns. Many took part in racist justice protests after the police killing of George Floyd. His political views are more left skewed than the American people as a whole.
Still, his conservative peers share many of his concerns. A 2020 research by the Yale Climate Change Communication Programfor example, 38 percent of those who identify as Republicans are millennials, born in 1981-96or younger say they support climate activists who are pushing lawmakers to take action. Also in 2020, Pew Research Center survey It found that 79 percent of Millennials and Gen Z Republicans supported the development of alternative energy sources, a much higher share of Republican baby boomers.
Just one of the street protest tactics
Campus groups in the United States and England pressured their universities to withdraw from fossil fuel companies and got some winsIncluding Harvard, Columbia and Oxford University.
American law students join prestigious law firms scorecard how much business they do with the fossil fuel industry.
Children have participated in climate causes in many countries, but so far without much success. in the United States, a landmark constitutional case dismissed by a federal appeals court; a few are pending in state courts. Australian Federal Court this month overturned a decision that the government has a duty to protect children from climate change.
Worried about the state of democracy
I am the mother of one, the aunt of many. For the past 20 years, I have written extensively about young people. So this last part gives me pause.
Most young Americans think democracy is in trouble in this country. Or worse, it fails. These were the findings of a study. Harvard University research, last year, it was carried out among 2000 young people between the ages of 18-29. Only 7 percent of respondents described American democracy as “healthy.”
This discontent is echoed in a global study that concluded that younger generations are “not only in absolute terms, but consistently more dissatisfied with democracy than older groups at comparable stages of life.” This work, A study conducted by the Center for the Future of Democracy at the University of Cambridge concluded that, in almost every region of the world, millennials are far more dissatisfied with democracies than the two previous generations. This study did not focus on Generation Z. But the downward slide in confidence in democracy is likely a motivating factor for those leading the protests this week.
Before you go: Long skating in the woods
No matter how much you love skating, whistling on an ice rink can get monotonous after a while. But gliding across miles of pristine Canadian forest on ice with birds in the trees, claw marks from black-printed wildlife, and a new discovery beckoning at every bend? This never gets old. Because Canada’s outdoor trails are based on natural ice, climate change is a major threat to their viability.
Thank you for reading. We’ll be back on Friday.
Claire O’Neill and Douglas Alteen contributed to Climate Forward.
Contact us climateforward@nytimes.com. We read every message and reply to many!
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