The Climate Crisis is an Adult Issue–– So Why Have We Turned to Youth?
By Kendra Wang
Our world is slowly dying. Our Arctic Sea Ice Extent has been down 13 percent since 1979 (NASA, 2022). A report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) revealed that all polar bears could be gone by 2100 (BBC, 2020). California forest fires have forcefully evicted thousands of people. The pandemic has rendered up to 7,200 tons of medical waste every day (MIT, 2021).
And amidst all the chaos, the burden to “fix” the world falls upon the shoulders of our next generation: teens. Greta Thunberg’s protest in 2018 urged students to leave school every Friday to stand their ground against climate change. Strikes for climate change make a statement. We tell the world that youth want change, that we are willing to do whatever it takes. And yet, many of us are merely ...