Youth Are Leading the Climate Conversation

Greta Thunberg was just the beginning

Hiya!

I know. Usually, no good comes from thinking about climate change. If anything, considering what’s coming spikes our anxiety and inspires a sense of dread. We feel helpless, like nothing we do matters. Avoiding the topic altogether is easier because, well, no one wants to be a downer. But sometimes, the easy way makes life harder down the road, and it’s the youth today that seem to understand this better than anyone.

Gen Z is especially leading the climate fight and demanding change. This makes sense, considering it’s the youngest and future generations who will experience the bulk of the consequences of the inaction and decisions made throughout the past and continuing to today.

Climate Predictions

I’m sure you’ve seen the various climate reports over the years completed by scientists worldwide. Each one is more devastating than the last making climate denial harder to take seriously. Although I’ve heard people wonder how accurate these predictions are, claiming the impacts won’t be as bad or as soon as experts suggest.

Yet, in 2020, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory published an article about a study that confirms “Climate Models are Getting Future Warming Projections Right.” Zeke Hausfather of the University of California, Berkeley, and his team compared 17 model projections of average global temperatures between 1970 and 2007 to the actual global temperatures through the end of 2017.

In the end, 14 of the 17 projections “closely matched observations.” Also, even the ones that were off, weren’t off by much. Take a look at the graph below.

Image Source: NASA’s Global Climate Change

We’ve all heard the horror stories of what we can expect as global warming intensifies — droughts, plagues, hurricanes, fires, etc. Unfortunately, dozens of more catastrophes are waiting to happen, making the events I just mentioned look insignificant. Let’s just say things aren’t looking good for the future climate-wise… at all. The way things are going, health, and prosperity for future generations are bleak.