I ended up spending Sunday afternoon speaking with about twenty 9-16yr olds about how they feel about climate change. Here’s what I learned... #talkingclimate
1)A fair few said they didn’t really know how they felt. This was maybe partly from not really personally engaging with the issue (lecturing them can also distance them from it) but also because there was quite a mix of emotions.
2) They felt lectured at by adults about it. This made them feel a range of other emotions – angry, frustrated, defiant. Angry @ hypocrisy & burden placing; Frustrated @ the mismatch between the scale of the problem & solutions they were presented; Defiant - prove adults wrong.
3) Have you ever heard a young person say they feel ashamed of climate change? Because it’s humans causing it and they’re a human? It’s absolutely heart breaking.
4) When it came to action on climate, they pretty much all talked about individual-level actions. They say they try their best, but there are somethings they cannot control. They felt the burden of these actions. Tumbleweed when it came to business/governmental actions…
5) Showed them some images from @climatevisuals . Unprompted, they said these were much better images – “All we ever see in school is some sad polar bear, not people who have been flooded”.
6) Their science knowledge is fab. Their questions are insightful. They understand this as a social justice issue, and are passionate about it. #scicomm #climatejustice @Fridays4future
7) Young people want to talk. I hadn’t planned on hosting this & I was terrified. I think these conversations need to be held *very carefully* and purposively. But it went really well. It was only supposed to be 15mins long. We went on for 45mins.
8) Talking about their feelings about climate change was fairly new to them. We did this carefully – hosted conversations in small groups with trained adults whom they all knew and had this sort of relationship with already. Ended with hope & how we are taking action together.
9) The hope of this generation is precious – “I feel hopeful when I think about us taking action altogether, as a global community, because that is what is needed. It’s a chance for us to come together”. #climatehope
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