Experts Warn of a Growing Number of Children Experiencing Climate Anxiety
Medical experts are sounding the alarm about the rise of "climate anxiety" in children and teens around the globe.
"We see that a lot of young people are saying, 'I think my life will be worse than my parents' lives,'" a psychology professor at Suffolk University in Boston told CBS News.
Data from a study published in The Lancet Planetary Health in December 2021 found that young people are extremely concerned about the state of the climate crisis.
"Climate anxiety and dissatisfaction with government responses are widespread in children and young people in countries across the world and impact their daily functioning," the report stated. "A perceived failure by governments to respond to the climate crisis is associated with increased distress."
A large number of young people in the study reported that they feel a sense of hopelessness and worry that the human race will go extinct. Most also agreed that governments are not doing enough to address the issue and even noted feeling betrayed by them.
"Children are now turning to legal action based on government failure to protect ecosystems, young citizens and their futures. Failure of governments to protect them from harm from climate change could be argued to be a failure of human rights and a failure of ethical responsibility to care, leading to moral injury," according to the journal.
The non-profit Child Mind Institute suggests that parents allow children to express their concerns and fear of climate change but to also encourage them to be brave. The organization also advises that parents helping them manage their feelings and adopting ways to change their own habits can help mitigate the worry.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 26, 2022, with Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter for $44 billion, Russia warning of a possible threat of World War III, the FDA approving a COVID treatment for children under 12, and more.
Plastic pollution is a problem that experts say is only getting worse. One organization is looking to change that. Activists want to save the beauty of our oceans, with the beauty of art. Brad Parks, conservation education director of the Washed Ashore project, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
The federal mask mandate for planes and other public transportation has been grounded. A federal judge in Florida struck down the nationwide requirement saying it exceeds health officials' authority. Dr. Sampson Davis, emergency medicine physician, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
UPSIDE foods, a company that makes cultivated meat products, recently raised $400 million in a Series C round.
UPSIDE says it's developing a way to grow real meat, poultry, and seafood, without the need to raise animals for human consumption. It's a process that gets the attention of some big-name backers, including Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Dr. Uma Valeti, Founder and CEO of UPSIDE Foods, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 25, 2022, with Secretary of State Blinken and Defense Secretary Austin visiting Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron is reelected as president of France, Twitter is talking to Elon Musk about his purchase bid, and more.
An increasing number of countries are recognizing "Rights of Nature", a legal movement that says ecosystems and species have basic rights to exist and flourish. Grant Wilson, executive director at Earth Law Center joins Cheddar News to explain what the movement is aiming to achieve.
Removing carbon from our atmosphere has become a goal for scientists and entrepreneurs around the world, and while many have begun to develop promising technology solutions, a few big names in tech, including Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta and McKinsey, are committing nearly $1 billion dollars to fund carbon removal technology through 2030 through a new initiative called Frontier, an advanced market commitment to incentive following through on development. Hannah Bebbington, the head of strategy for Frontier, joined Cheddar News to discuss. "What Frontier aims to do is help get this market on track by sending that strong demand signal such that we can scale up capacity really significantly in the next couple of years," she said.
Autumn Peltier, an indigenous water activist, joined Cheddar News to talk about the lack of access to clean water among indigenous communities in Canada. “I say the government to hold themselves accountable for the promises that they make because Canada and indigenous people have a long history of broken promises and they still continue to this day to keep breaking promises with the nation's people," she said. "Less talk and more action is very much expected from me."
Jonah Goldman, the managing director at Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy, joined Cheddar News to talk about the promising growth in the climate change-conscious investments the organization has made over the years. ”I mean when we're looking at some of the hard to abate technologies and cement and steel and aviation fuel, all of those have promising pathways that weren't there again just a few years ago," he said. "We invest across all of the technology areas that are driving emissions, greenhouse gas emissions and there really are exciting products and technologies coming out in almost every one of those sectors.”
Robert Bonnie, farm production and conservation undersecretary for the USDA, spoke to Cheddar about climate-smart strategies to help farmers reduce carbon emissions from agriculture. "We share the costs of installing those practices on their lands in ways that will protect the climate and maintain agricultural productivity, and we're also partnering with farmers to draw in private investment in greenhouse gas emissions reductions provided by agriculture and forestry," he said. The hope is to get farmers and ranchers to produce climate-smart commodities to lessen the impact of climate change.
