A report released by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life has found that youth concern about climate change has emerged as one of the top issues driving both their activism and their participation at the ballot box.
The report titled “Youth Concern About Climate Change Drives Civic Engagement found that global warming is an issue that is increasingly affecting more and more people across the globe.
Sara Suzuki, who led the research team at CIRCLE, said that young people are given fewer opportunities in terms of [political engagement] … especially with an issue like the climate where it affects future generations’ well-being.
“This has made it all the more important to examine youth engagement with climate change and ways to address this unequal engagement,” Suzuki said.
Read also: Data shows methane in earth’s atmosphere increased in 2021
He explained that the process of writing the report began by working with data about youth engagement across a variety of different issues and analyzing it.
“Our data comes from a survey CIRCLE — in partnership with professional survey companies — fielded,” Suzuki said. “It’s a subsample but it represents the U.S. youth population in 2020”.
Also responding to the findings of the reports, the communications team lead at CIRCLE, Alberto Medina spoke about how the data analysis focused not only on the issues youth activists deem important but also on the existing inequities and discrepancies in youth engagement.
According to Medina, CIRCLE sourced data from both its own polling and from exit polls conducted by the Associated Press.
“We’re interested in how concern on an issue like climate, which is so widespread, can be a pathway [into more engagement with civic life],” Alberto Medina said.
He noted that the conclusion from the analysis was that youth heavily prioritized climate change when considering who they would vote for and why they wanted to be politically active.
Story was adapted from The Tufts Daily.
