Student learning of pollution in a classroom; photo by James P. Blair
Maybe your teenager is getting straight A’s in school, but there’s one topic she still needs to study up on: climate change. According to a recent poll conducted by Yale University, only half of teenagers believe that climate change is occurring, and even those who may not understand the reasons why. When the results were tallied up, only one-fourth of the teens surveyed received a passing grade compared to 30% of older respondents.
Among the findings:
- 54% of teens say that global warming is happening, versus 63% of adults
- 35% of teens understand that most scientists agree global warming is happening, compared with 39% of adults
- 46% of teens understand that emissions from cars and trucks substantially contribute to global warming, versus 49% of adults
Teens won out on a few questions however. Fifty-seven percent of them understand that global warming is caused by human activities compared to only 50% of grown-ups.
And the good news? Seventy percent of teens say they would like to learn more about global warming.
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