Generational Narratives about Climate Change Concerns

Young people are concerned about the anthropogenic climate change; a "Generation Climate" is created on one side with older people as antagonists on the other side resulting in the perpetuation of the myth of a generational divide with young climate heroes and old climate villains. The perception of a generation gap "is further strengthened by young climate activists capturing the media's and public's attention" (Poortinga, 2023). In fact, a "fake generational war over the climate crisis has distorted public thinking" promoting the idea "that young people are ecowarriors, battling against selfish older generations" - an idea that is now well established in the environment movement and has "crept into so many discussions about climate concerns that it's become an accepted truth" (via).

For their analysis, Poortinga et al. (2023) used data from three representative surveys conducted in the UK in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The authors studied climate-related beliefs, risks perceptions and emotions and came to the conclusion that there were no generational differences in climate-related beliefs and that generational differences were rather found in climate-related emotions. In addition, a diminishing generational gap from 2020 to 2021 and 2022 was found. Older generations were also more likely to believe that we are already feeling the effects of climate change. 

There are however questions regarding the nature and the size of the generation gap, as effects have not been observed consistently. Age-related differences have been found in beliefs about the reality, causes, and impacts of climate change, with older individuals being more likely to express climate sceptical views than younger ones3,10–12; and there is evidence that younger people are more concerned about the environment in general13,14 and climate change in particular2,15. Furthermore, younger age groups may be more likely to experience climate-related emotions, such as worry, anger and guilt16, as well as climate-related anxiety4. However, other research only found small or absent age differences17. For example, Shi and colleagues (2016) report that age was not significant in explaining climate concern in five out of six countries; and a meta-analysis of research published between 1970 and 2010 concluded that age effects for environmental concern, values and commitment were negligible18.

The differentiation between the constructs beliefs, risk perceptions and emotions is important when studying generational patterns as ...

(...) there is a hierarchical relationship between climate-related beliefs, risk perceptions and emotions. The lower components of the model are a necessary but insufficient condition for the higher components. While someone can recognise the reality of anthropogenic climate change, the person may not perceive it as a threat or experience any climate related emotions. On the other hand, in order to experience climate-related emotions, one has to believe that anthropogenic climate change is real and poses a threat. As such, it is important to clearly distinguish between the different components, as generational differences may exist for some but not for others.

In other words, age is of no relevance for climate change scepticism but plays a role when it comes to threat perceptions, worry and emotions. Similarly, the survey carried out by Duffy (2021) in the UK also shows that the generational divide is a myth. According to the findings, older people are more likely than younger ones to feel that acting in environmentally conscious ways will make a difference. Younger generations feel more fatalistice about the impact on actions taken. One third of "gen Z" (under 24) and "millennials" (25-40) say there was no point changing their behaviour since it will not make any difference anyway, while only 22% of "gen X" (41-56) and 19% of "baby boomers" (57-75) express this view. Twice as many "baby boomers" than "gen Z" had boycotted a company in the past twelve months for environmental reasons.

Another survey, carried out by RestLess in the UK among people aged 50 and over, found that about two-thirds want ministers "to move faster on climate initiatives" accepting that products and services would be more expensive over time or more difficult to access. One of the conclusions was that "midlifers feel a huge sense of responsibility for the health of the planet and their role in reducing climate change". Only a minority of older people is unconcerned about the climate crisis (via). Nevertheless, younger people keep underestimating how worried older people are about climate change. 

In 2021, a project started in Ireland, the results were published this year. According to the study, the generational myths do have a negative impact as they make "young people more worried about climate change, without any corresponding increase in willingness to engage in climate action". A sample (n = 500) of people aged 16 zo 24 read a text about climate change. Half of the participants read a text that emphasised generational differences (causes of climate change, exposure to its effects), the other half a text that was neutral in terms of generational aspects. Afterwards, participants answered questions about their perceptions and their willingness to engage in climate action. When young people were provided with accurate information on how worried older people (here defined above 40) in fact were, their attitudes changed. Their belief in older people's willingness to show climate action increased and so did their own willingness (via). And collective action is exactly what we need now.

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- Duffy, B. (2021). Who cares about climate change? Attitudes across the generations. New Scientist
- Poortinga, W., Demski, C. & Steentjes, K. (2023). Generational differences in climate-related risk perceptions and emotions in the UK. communications. earth & environment, 1-8.
- photograph by William Eggleston via