Transcript:

More than 80% of young people in the U.S. say they are worried about climate change.

Schifter: “Whether it’s going outside to play in extreme heat, or if it’s about the jobs that they’re going to be able to access in the future, the world that they are living in is being shaped by our changing climate.”

But Laura Schifter of the Aspen Institute says a recent survey that her group commissioned reveals that many teens do not fully understand the issue.

Only about half of the teens surveyed know that climate change is mostly caused by carbon pollution from human activities like burning fossil fuels.

And even fewer know that nearly all climate scientists have concluded that human activity is causing climate change.

But Schifter says that teens who reported hearing some or a lot about climate change from their teachers were more likely to answer the questions correctly than those who had not.

Schifter: “So I think that also shows a lot of potential around how we can address these misunderstandings by teaching about it in school and having conversations with our kids at home. … It just shows that we can do a lot more to talk about it and teach it.”

Schifter says her group offers resources to help school districts include climate education in their curricula – and parents and teachers talk about climate change with kids.

Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media