Could this be the global-warming generation?
Live Earth concerts in eight countries hope to inspire action. Will it work?
from the July 5, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
Bring your own chopsticks
Concertgoers and TV viewers will be shown video clips and public service messages proposing scores of practical tips for cutting CO2 emissions, from turning off their computers at night in America to bringing their own chopsticks to restaurants in China, so as not to use the disposable wooden ones provided and thus save millions of trees.
In Fukuoka, Japan, English major Yuko Araki says she expects young Japanese to pay more attention to musicians than to politicians discredited by a string of scandals. "If popular artists send some message about environmental problems to young people they are sure to listen," she says.
How much they – and their peers in other industrial countries – will actually do, however, is unclear. A poll published Tuesday in Britain found that though 68 percent of respondents believe we are seeing climate change, 37 percent admitted to doing nothing at all about it.
"Most people seem to accept climate change but don't buy into it enough to translate into action," says Phil Downing, head of environmental research at IPSOS Mori, which conducted the poll. And though young people "seem to be the most concerned about climate change," he adds, "paradoxically they are the most likely to engage in behavior that's environmentally destructive like flying, buying plasma screens and fast cars."
While US high school students may not be indulging in such pastimes yet, they do not seem to care much about global warming. A poll last November by Hamilton College found that only 28 percent of American high school students think it is very likely that climate change will affect them personally in the future.
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