There are so many things to consider when choosing a college: class size, cost, the strength of the swim team or theater program, for example. And for a growing number of high schoolers, climate change also ranks high on their list of considerations.
“I’m honestly super scared about moving to New Orleans for college,” says Katherine Hudson, an 18-year-old from Knoxville, Tennessee. “While I’m excited because I love Louisiana, I’m also scared of a Katrina-esque situation happening again.”
For teens everywhere, this is the reality as they come of age during a time of climate crisis. In a recent 10-country survey of 10,000 young people ages 16 to 25 published in The Lancet, 45% of respondents said their feelings about climate change had “negatively affected their daily life and functioning.”
“Climate anxiety is more intense for teenagers, [especially] as they transition from home to college, because they have internalized the urgency of the crisis,” says Heather White, author of One Green Thing: Discover Your Hidden Power to Help Save the Planet.
For Earth Week, Teen Vogue wanted to hear from U.S. high school students about how climate change concerns show up in your lives and how you cope with these stressors. Have you lived through extreme weather events? Do you talk to people about how they experience this crisis in their lives? Are you taught about it in school?
Grappling with these anxieties can feel overwhelming and frustrating, but many students say talking to loved ones or getting engaged in school or community organizing has helped. Hope is never lost. As climate activist Mitzi Jonelle Tan wrote in Teen Vogue, “Every second counts; every fraction of a degree [of warming] matters.”
We’ve shared a selection of remarks from students below, along with videos created by ABC News in which two respondents are interviewed.
Editor’s note: These responses have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Isabella Luzarraga, 18
Hometown: Omaha — College town: Boston
My aunt works for the Nebraska chapter of the Nature Conservancy, so we are constantly discussing legislation and local concern regarding climate change. In the past couple of years, my home state has experienced drastic flooding due to climate change, the creek behind my house overflowing into the prairie. Because Nebraska relies largely on agriculture, the severe swings in temperature and drastic droughts followed by floods have harmed our crops and farmers.
In Boston, the frequent nor’easters dump feet of snow, which then [often] melt in unusually warm temperatures the following week.
This may sound a little naive, but I purposely didn’t apply to any colleges on the West Coast. I thought to myself, California is going to fall into the ocean in 50 years or some anyway, and I don’t want to get attached to a place I might lose.
My concern for the environment’s future definitely impacted my passion for journalism. I wholeheartedly believe that investigating and elevating diverse voices are forms of advocacy that make a difference.
Lily Gelb, 15
Sonoma, California
