Youth is no longer what it used to be - or is it?

The climate crisis is plunging the world into an unprecedented mood. The future is less predictable than ever before. What does this do to young people?

Diffuse fears and gloomy visions of the future versus utilitarian optimism and activism - sociologist Reingard Spannring asked a group of young people how they feel about their future in times of global warming.

Around 30 high school students in Innsbruck were surveyed, so this is not a representative study.

According to the sociologist, the picture of the mood painted in this way is interestingly in line with international studies and was presented at the "Youth in times of crisis" conference in Innsbruck.

Youth culture and climate protection - how can they go together?

On the one hand, many young people are plagued by diffuse fears about the future, as it is impossible to predict how the climate and therefore their own lives will develop.

On the other hand, young people are stuck in the ideals of the consumer and throwaway society, which is also fueled by the omnipresent social media.

They are aware of the need for climate-conscious behavior, but socially this is not so easy to implement.

"It's a bit of a conflict between what they consider sensible and want to do, and the social conditions that keep drawing them back into traditional cultural practices and keeping them there," says Reingard Spannring, summarizing this ambivalence.

About consistency and frustration

Giving up air travel, meat or cars is easier for the younger generation than for the older generation, but they are still powerless "because they know that they cannot solve the problem with their behavior alone, but that global solutions and changes are needed," says Spannring.

The higher the level of education and the more urban the living conditions, the more likely young people are to become climate activists or at least climate-conscious people, according to a study by sociologist Natalia Wächter from the University of Graz, to which Spannring refers.

Solidarity helps

Joining a climate movement often helps a lot to fight the feeling of powerlessness and to get into action and apart from the overall social benefit, activity also helps the soul.

Optimism and climate change?

Young people have a very differentiated understanding of the problem of climate change.

One student, for example, said that the situation was in some ways comparable to the pandemic, where at the beginning you didn't know how to solve the problem and how to behave. "We had to learn how to deal with it step by step. And it's the same with climate change. It's something that challenges society as a whole to learn step by step how we should deal with it," Spannring summarizes the student.

In principle, a tendency towards optimism is definitely recognizable, but a foundation built by society would be a good basis for this - so that it is also justified. 💚