A new poll from Sacred Heart University's Institute for Sustainability and Social Justice finds that nearly two-thirds of young adults feel eco-anxiety, with 70% worried about climate change. The survey also shows strong support for colleges to teach sustainability, social justice, and real-world skills to take action.
WSHU’s Ann Karrick spoke with Kirk Bartholomew, associate professor of Biology and Development Director at the Institute for Sustainability and Social Justice, and Mary Lena Mantas-Kouronis, assistant professor of Political Science and Global Affairs.
WSHU: Let's start with this: how do you define Eco-Anxiety?
KB: That question was specifically about climate change and was a follow-up from a question we asked last summer. We asked how they agree with the statement “I experience eco-anxiety”, and then “my level of concern for climate change causes psychological distress such that it impacts my daily life”. That's a pretty strong statement. When 55% of America's youth said that last summer, and it increased to 63 percent in this survey, that's pretty significant.
WSHU: This survey may not answer the question, but what is causing the anxiety or concern?
MLMK: The survey does not answer that question, but it does ask why they're motivated to take action on sustainability and social justice. We provided them with several possible reasons, and they identified personal experience and concern for future generations and community well-being as the top reasons that motivate them to do so.
To me, that suggests that youth have been personally affected by matters of sustainability and social justice, but perhaps more importantly, that they actually truly care about future generations, and they care about community well-being. This goes against notions that our youth are self-centered, that our youth are indifferent, that they're apathetic.
KB: You know, they care. They feel responsible, and they want to know how to act and how to take action.
MLMK: And they are looking to institutions of higher education to help them acquire the skills required to take action.
WSHU: And what is the role of higher education?
MLMK: The poll suggests that youth are very aware that they cannot trust information, whether that is coming from social media or traditional media. What they told us, and what the poll communicates to us and to the general public, is that there is an awareness of a lack of trusted information.
Youth primarily look to family and friends for sources of trusted information, which suggests that they understand that we are at a challenging moment regarding misinformation. The poll suggests that youth look to higher education to teach them inner capacities to address sustainability and social justice. So they're looking at universities to learn how to be, think, relate and collaborate. Those are the capacities that they identified as important. That means universities could provide practical skills to address the challenge related to information and the lack of trust in information.
