Sep 24, 2025 05:21 PM
https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/202...ration-gap
EXCERPTS: In 2019, singer Billie Eilish (then 19), captured the building frustration of many young people when she said, “Hopefully the adults and the old people start listening to us so that we don’t all die. Old people are gonna die and don’t really care if we die, but we don’t wanna die yet.”
Ouch.
But is it true? The climate generation gap, it turns out, isn’t so cut and dry. Age might not make that much of a difference in how important folks think climate change is. And both younger and older people seem to engage in climate denial in roughly equal amounts.
That said, there are important differences between generations. Here we dive headfirst into the climate generation gap. What’s really in it? And what are the different things the old and young bring to the climate movement?
[...] In a climate-changed world, young people are the pessimists. [...] That said, a little pessimism can be useful. When a team of researchers tested a range of emotions, they found that anger—not hope—most strongly fueled activism. [...] Young people are also taking their anger to court...
[...] In the 2020 US election, about three-quarters of people 65+ turned out to vote, compared to only half of folks 18-24. Retirement age folks are now the second largest group after 18-34 year-olds to list climate as one of their top priorities. And climate concerns may have the power to tip elections (as Anthropocene covered last year). Middle-age folks, catch up.
[...] These growing concerns are also leading many older folks to put their money—that is, their retirement accounts—where their mouth is. [...] The older generation’s edge isn’t just wealth, it’s also experience. Even though older folks may feel less personally threatened by climate change, they’re also more likely to say that they can identify ways that things have changed—winters that used to be colder, for instance, or changes in what animals are around.
[...] A lot of young climate activists made names for themselves as teenagers during the Obama or first Trump administrations. But that was ten years ago and these kids are no longer kids. [...] Last year, Anthropocene covered a science paper looking at intergenerational altruism—basically how much people were willing to sacrifice for future generations...
[...] Compared to previous years, this generation of young climate activists is leaning more into what researchers call intersectionality. That is, they’re banding climate together more with other activist causes, like feminism, fighting homelessness, or social justice. Does this broadening focus risk the movement losing effectiveness or is it the key to real change? (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: In 2019, singer Billie Eilish (then 19), captured the building frustration of many young people when she said, “Hopefully the adults and the old people start listening to us so that we don’t all die. Old people are gonna die and don’t really care if we die, but we don’t wanna die yet.”
Ouch.
But is it true? The climate generation gap, it turns out, isn’t so cut and dry. Age might not make that much of a difference in how important folks think climate change is. And both younger and older people seem to engage in climate denial in roughly equal amounts.
That said, there are important differences between generations. Here we dive headfirst into the climate generation gap. What’s really in it? And what are the different things the old and young bring to the climate movement?
[...] In a climate-changed world, young people are the pessimists. [...] That said, a little pessimism can be useful. When a team of researchers tested a range of emotions, they found that anger—not hope—most strongly fueled activism. [...] Young people are also taking their anger to court...
[...] In the 2020 US election, about three-quarters of people 65+ turned out to vote, compared to only half of folks 18-24. Retirement age folks are now the second largest group after 18-34 year-olds to list climate as one of their top priorities. And climate concerns may have the power to tip elections (as Anthropocene covered last year). Middle-age folks, catch up.
[...] These growing concerns are also leading many older folks to put their money—that is, their retirement accounts—where their mouth is. [...] The older generation’s edge isn’t just wealth, it’s also experience. Even though older folks may feel less personally threatened by climate change, they’re also more likely to say that they can identify ways that things have changed—winters that used to be colder, for instance, or changes in what animals are around.
[...] A lot of young climate activists made names for themselves as teenagers during the Obama or first Trump administrations. But that was ten years ago and these kids are no longer kids. [...] Last year, Anthropocene covered a science paper looking at intergenerational altruism—basically how much people were willing to sacrifice for future generations...
[...] Compared to previous years, this generation of young climate activists is leaning more into what researchers call intersectionality. That is, they’re banding climate together more with other activist causes, like feminism, fighting homelessness, or social justice. Does this broadening focus risk the movement losing effectiveness or is it the key to real change? (MORE - missing details)