6 ways to build resilience and hope into young people's learning about climate change

This generation finds itself part of a problem it did not create, but it is also part of the solution. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

As they become more exposed to the grim realities of climate change, today’s teens and people in their 20s — an entire generation — are experiencing increased anxiety, grief, fear or guilt about the planet’s future as well as their own.

For teachers of environmental studies, softening the scientific evidence about what lies ahead — in terms of sea-level rise and the increased intensity, duration and frequency of storms, droughts and floods — is not an option. While parents will need to choose how and when to deliver information in contextually or age-appropriate ways, pretending climate change isn’t here shouldn’t be an option either.