In one of the many oddities of biology, kids hear differently than the rest of us. There are frequencies that only teens and young adults can make out. Lately it seems that the under-20 crowd is hearing one particular high pitch much better than the rest of us, including most business leaders: the alarm that climate scientists have been sounding.
Young People Are Leading the Way on Climate Change, and Companies Need to Pay Attention
Young people are increasingly sounding the alarm about climate change. In fact, 1.6 million students in 300 cities marched on a single day in protest in March of 2019. Will this climate movement end up as significant as the anti-war, civil rights, and gay rights movements? It’s hard to predict. But it’s increasingly clear is that society in the middle of a major re-alignment of values around climate. It’s now unacceptable to young activists, and the millions of people they inspire, to espouse climate denial or play the “let’s go slow” card. They don’t appreciate being handed a disaster movie for them to live with for 70 to 80 years. The question remains: Will companies step up and aggressively lobby on climate issues? If not, they may risk becoming out of step with an entire generation of employees and customers.