U.S. Teens Have a Mix of Emotions About Climate Change

Today, teens and school-age children around the world are taking to the streets to bring political attention to climate change. Greta Thunberg, a 16-year old Swedish activist, has become the face of the movement. The teenager spent every Friday last year in front of the Swedish parliament protesting climate change inaction by politicians in her home country. Now Thunberg is taking the action to New York City where she, and thousands of others, will protest political inaction on climate change in the lead up to the United Nations General Assembly meeting on September 23rd.

The day of action, which will be part of a full week of protests, is not confined to New York. Within the United States, there will be over 1,000 other protest events taking place at the same time. Globally, there will be 5,200 other action events in more than 150 other countries.

Teenagers and school-age children are stepping up, organizing, leading the protests. Many young people report feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of dealing with the current and future repercussions of climate change. The Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation found that 57 percent of U.S. teens are afraid of climate change. Nearly the same share of teens feels motivated by climate change. Only one in five teens reported being uninterested in climate change.