Survey of young people aged 16-25 from all US states shows concerns across political spectrum
The overwhelming majority of young Americans worry about the climate crisis, and more than half say their concerns about the environment will affect where they decide to live and whether to have children, new research finds.
The study comes just weeks after back-to-back hurricanes, Helene and Milton, pummeled the south-eastern US. Flooding from Helene caused more than 600 miles of destruction, from Florida’s west coast to the mountains of North Carolina, while Milton raked across the Florida peninsula less than two weeks later.
“One of the most striking findings of the survey was that this was across the political spectrum,” said the lead author, Eric Lewandowski, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “There was no state sample where the endorsement of climate anxiety came in less than 75%.”
The study was published in the Lancet Planetary Health, and follows a 2021 study covering 10 countries. Both the previous and current study were paid for by Avaaz, an advocacy group.
It’s always amazed me that young voters tend to be the most unreliable voting bloc. I was a young, early-20s idealist, and I made sure to go out and vote. Hopefully they step it up this November.
I think there are voter suppression efforts that target youth. Plus they’re likely struggling to get by and may feel like they can’t spend hours/all day voting.
There’s also a huge amount of political cynicism. It’s easier to just think that there can be no change, and that my one vote doesn’t matter, and that all politicians are evil. I saw this way too much during my college days.
It’s true, though. America is not and has never been a Democracy, the only votes that matter are thosr cast in swing counties in a few states.
No. No. Absolutely not no. I don’t care if youre a Democrat in the middle of rural Kansas. Get the fuck out there and vote. This kind of defeatist shit is exactly what lets those locked in areas get away with it. A revolution has to have attendees. Show up. Vote. Even if you feel like you’re voting alone, you’re not.
Y’all seem to misunderstand, Harris already won the election months ago when Biden dropped out. It isn’t defeatism to resign myself to another four years of trying to convince the Democrats to maybe stop helping boil the planet and blow up foreign kids.
As far as I’m concerned she hasn’t won until she’s sworn in. And that’s the approach people need to take. I agree with convincing Democrats to get their shit together, but this thought train of “I’m not even gonna vote, it’s already won/it doesn’t matter” is exactly the kind of shit that gets us in trouble. Get out there and vote. It’s your fucking responsibility as a citizen of this country. Do it.
Local races are actually important even if the electoral college makes my solid blue state federal votes worthless.
In my state (CA) everyone gets a mail in ballot by default. I wonder what the rates are here? I bet not great.
They won’t, there’s nobody to inspire them like Bernie, just pro-fracking, genocide-sponsoring Democrats and even worse Republicans.
Or even worse, people like you who do everything they can to disparage the only party that might possibly do something good…
You think you’re being sly, but it’s just cringe.
“The problem isn’t with the politicians and their policies, it’s with people disparaging them.”
In my 42 year being alive, has social mobility improved? Is the education system allowing more young people to succeed? Have we made strong inroads into ensuring all young people have food and a place to live?
If no, then maybe the problem is not with people being disparaging.
If talking about Democrat policies is disparaging to the party then I don’t know how I’m supposed to explain why the young folks aren’t excited to vote without disparaging the party. XD
Oh look another person pretending not to understand the difference between good faith and bad faith discussion (while clearly and knowingly participating in the latter).
Why would you tell on yourself like this?
Choosing between shit and a shit sandwich, it’s fine to point out one has carbs but it’s dishonest to pretend you’re excited to eat a shit sandwich
Yeah that’s not what’s happening here…
Then either you think that young people will be turning out in droves this election or that some other reason is why they aren’t excited to vote.
And that’s the problem. Why do they need someone to inspire them when they should also be interested and invested in their own future? Can’t say the same thing is happening in my country, generally even the most politically apathetic person at this age range (me included) understands the importance of it but somehow this seems like a wild idea in the US?
I agree, it’s a very serious problem that the Democrats continue to push policy that is unpopular with young folks.
Because elections are popularity contests.
They very clearly are, but there aren’t any American political parties that are invested in their future. Just ones that pretend to cater to them while selling them out to the oil and weapons industries.
Yeah, it sucks. Any time you start talking about making the future suck less, Republicans start calling you a commie socialist and Democrats kick you out of the group chat.
That seems very defeatist though? I mean I get where you’re coming from in that ideally we’d have options which align more with what we want to move towards progress but realistically that’s not something that’s entirely possible right now.
Right now, there’s an option that pushes progress further back and the other one that seems somewhat neutral by comparison (unfortunately). In that case, wouldn’t picking the lesser evil be better than simply standing by and doing nothing?
Let’s look at the topic of this thread. Is Harris neutral? She’s walked back her stance on being against fracking.
The options are “a lot worse” or “less worse.” And those are the options every four years. Voting is ineffective, and Democrats are just as bad as Republicans when it comes to making villains out of climate protestors.
Yes harm reduction is important and I think young people should vote Democrat. But Democrats have done nothing to earn it.
Yea I definitely agree with you entirely and I don’t think what I said is in anyway counter to what I said. I do wish that’s what people in general keep in mind when choosing what to vote or even voting at all.
It’s not defeatism, it’s political realism based on an understanding that the USA is not and has never been a democracy. The only two parties that matter get to pick their constituencies and they cannot fail, they can only be failed by the usual electoral scapegoats.
And in any case, the DNC knows they’re winning this election so why should they risk alienating their corporate and billionaire donors by appealing to the idealism of the youth?
Also, I don’t believe in lesser-evilism. If a party can’t pass an anti-genocide bar that’s so low as to be subterranean, then they aren’t getting my vote.
While I agree with you in the ideal scenario, wouldn’t the end result of not voting for the lesser evil lead to the outcome where the greater evil wins anyways? In that case, realistically, wouldn’t a lack of a vote be practically equivalent to a vote for the greater evil?
I’m not American and so I have no idea how things on the ground are like but it does seem that the people who support the republicans seem to be a lot more passionate in voting for their end?
Only in the short term, because the victory of the greater evil activates people politically. That’s how we got Biden in 2020, it was as inevitable as Harris’ victory next month.
No, abstaining is abstaining regardless. All blame directed at uncommitted voters is in reality a fault of the parties that fail to appeal to them.
The voters cannot be blamed for the lacl of choice they were given, to do so is to insist that the parties have a right to make demands of the voters rather than the other way around.
Yup. They’ve got a party that promotes their sense of greivance and Democrats can’t match that energy without moving left and alienating their right-wing campaign financiers.
I can’t say I agree entirely with you here since it does seem to equate a lack of variety in choices is the same as a lack of choice. Still, I do somewhat get what you mean and I can respect that. Either way, thanks for humouring me, it was enlightening to see the other perspective.
Forget it, you’re talking to a brick wall.
Let them get some life experience and maybe in 15-20 years it’ll be a productive conversation.
I lost my faith in the American political system over 20 years ago…
Sure
?
As a commie socialist I believe that’s exactly what we need to make the future suck less
I’m always amazed that old people think voting is going to solve the climate catastrophe.
You understand that with a super-majority in congress, we get to make the rules, right? Companies can only do what is legal in the countries they operate in.
If we decide to take 90% of the money from fossil fuel companies and divert them to clean energy, reduce our DOD spending by 50% and funnel it into scientific research, NASA, etc. then we have a shot.
We are the people, and the government is intended to be a reflection of that. Not the gerrymandered, voter suppressed state it’s in today.
If you get a large enough majority? Hell yeah it will.
Have them all demand to raise taxes on oil company profits to 90% to fund renewables, it’ll be just like when we broke big tobacco.