TakingITGlobal

Young people today are future generations. They will inherit the entangled impacts of climate change, but they are not an abstract category. Youth are alive today. They deserve climate change education, action, and the political spaces to speak their concerns and truly be heard. The youth in this study are acting now to spread awareness and advocate for institutional change, to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. Yet, at home they do not have many outlets to adequately express their anxieties, emotions, or ideas; meanwhile, for many youth in the world, technological and pharmaceutical avenues of distraction, numbing, and entertainment are regularly offered, on streets and in stores. With this report, we as researchers seek to provide some guidance for peers, parents, educators, and decision makers, to support and empower young people in their efforts to be responsible citizens, able to respond to climate change. A rich experience for the youth team, this project also served as a rich learning experience for us, as (primarily young) social scientists. Below we highlight and investigate: 1) the ideological, social, and material barriers that combine to limit youth engagement in similar ways in different parts of the world, and particularly, the peculiar persistence of individual solutions in all accounts 2) what helped the youth in this study: the vital importance of relationships and the spaces they hold for emotions and collaboration 3) the difficulties of replicating the benefits of this project in different contexts and 4) the importance of creating space for youth to engage politically and express how they feel about climate change.

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