Youth in a Warming World: What we can learn from Youth in their ‘climate grief’
York University, Masters in Environmental Studies (MES)
Graduate Term Paper (April 1 2021)
EDUC 6435 Youth & Cultural Experience, Dr. Kate Tilleczek
Illustration credit: LUMEZIA/ iStockPhotos.com
This graduate term paper and video presentation (below) is a ‘global youth study report’ on youth grappling with the climate crisis. This paper explore what I call the ‘5 stage of climate grief’ based on the Kubler-Ross model of the ‘5 stages of grief.’ While it is well known that climate change is one of the defining issues of our time and it will affect people in unequal ways, it is less explored as an intergenerational justice issue that has far reaching consequences for young people today and into the future.
Feminists have long argued that the climate debate is clouded by patriarchal approaches, including being dominated by empirical scientific methods, misogynistic politics and a security apparatus framework, which all lends itself to patriarchal solutions of economic techno-fixes that ultimately maintains the status-quo. Instead, a much more limited debate exists in framing climate change as a justice, equity and health struggle, which lends itself to solutions oriented towards anti-oppression and systemic change. Hence, this paper accepts a feminist perspective to analyze the climate crisis in terms of how the crisis is disproportionately affecting youth and their wellbeing, that of their physical and mental health.