Intergenerational Approaches to Climate Action

In view of the inherited temporal dimension of climate change, this study aims to highlight diverse intergenerational effects and coping strategies by examining the state of literature on older people and intergenerational relations in the context of climate change. Both older and younger people are affected by age-based discrimination in the context of climate change. Generational differences in energy consumption and attitudes toward climate change exist. Nonetheless, these can be overcome by stressing the solidarity between the generations and the ability of older people to contribute to the climate change movement as well as by the ability of both young and old to transmit knowledge and practices related to sustainability.

Many environmental problems are desperately in need of attention. Educating both adults and young people is seen as part of the solution to such problems. Given this situation, and the already considerable investment in environmental education in schools, the notion of encouraging students to initiate environmental discussions with adults at home and in the community seems attractive and worthy of investigation. To this end, this paper critically reviews education and social science literature concerning intergenerational influence. An approach is outlined to guide future efforts in research and program development aimed at encouraging students to act as catalysts of environmental communication and learning beyond school boundaries.

Since the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, a global shift in consciousness has taken place around the urgency of the Earth’s climate crisis. Amidst growing panic, teenagers are emerging as key leaders and mobilizers, demanding intergenerational justice and immediate action. They are, however, often depicted as lone revolutionaries or as pawns of adult organizations. These representations obscure the complex and important ways in which climate justice movements are operating, and particularly the ways in which dynamics of age intersect with other axes of power within solidarity efforts in specific contexts. This article explores these dynamics, building on analyses of intersectional and intergenerational solidarity practices. Specifically, it delves into detailed analysis of how the Seattle group of the Raging Grannies, a network of older activists, engaged in Seattle’s ShellNo Action Coalition, mobilizing their age, whiteness, and gender to support racialized and youth activists involved in the coalition.

Climate justice is conceived as the intertemporal climate equity and equality exchange amongst generations. Sustainability—intended as the interplay amongst the economy, the society, the environment, and the governance—is essential to forge the climate justice theoretical framework. On this base, the study attempts to model the intertemporal choice of the status quo amongst generations in these four domains, making use of an overlapping generations (OLG) model making use of an intertemporal choice framework. This study shows that keeping the business-as-usual scenario, young generations will have to bear the brunt of sustainable development. Additionally, reduced emissions are only achievable with increased efforts by the youth. These facts call for enhanced intergenerational sustainability and climate justice policies.

Getting the growing population of older adults actively involved in issues of climate change requires moving away from a deficit- and loss-focused view of later adulthood. A new narrative should be adopted, recognizing the many contributions older adults can make to addressing the climate crisis. These contributions arise out of concerns for the health and well-being of the next generations and draw on older adults' legacy thinking, lifelong experiences, professional expertise, and ability to work in multigenerational contexts. Such a new narrative recognizes older adults as a "natural resource" and important "human capital."

The purpose of Recycling Mentors was to implement an intergenerational, service-learning program focused on promoting recycling and environmental awareness among students and adults older than 60 years. Recycling Mentors was conducted in New Hanover County (NHC), North Carolina, where a moderate climate and coastal location attracts many tourists, retirees, and college students. Overall, Recycling Mentors was a positive service-learning experience with students identifying salient outcomes such as learning about recycling and the environment and working with older adults. While service-learning and environmentally themed projects are common, a program that combines the two like Recycling Mentors is unique and has the potential to motivate individual change while positively impacting the local community and the environment.

This article documents the growing involvement of older adults in applied environmental concerns. The article further links this growing involvement to efforts undertaken by various educational forces, many located in the higher education arena. Education is viewed as contributing to individual empowerment. This empowerment is the rationale for senior engagement and changing society's perception of seniors and their rightful roles as stewards and contributors to future sustainability.

This study highlights age-based local ecological knowledge (LEK) on agroforestry-based ecosystem services to understand differences in the generational persistence and sources of their LEK. A structured survey was conducted with youth, middle-aged, and elderly users of an agroforestry landscape in Mindanao, Philippines. Results indicated high LEK across all the ecosystem services, highlighting strong socialecological interdependence on the agroforestry landscape. Intergenerational transfer of knowledge was prominent for provisioning ecosystem services. However, institution-based learning was essential for regulating services (e.g., climate change mitigation), especially for the youth. Experiential learning was the primary mode of knowledge acquisition for regulating services (e.g., biodiversity conservation) for the older generations. These results provide strong evidence to help guide policy actors, decision makers, and program managers. Revised policy should be based on age-targeted interventions and proper learning entry points found effective in this study.

Our world is presently facing formidable challenges requiring intergenerational, interdisciplinary, and interprofessional solutions that encourage local learning and action. This article articulates the concept of “intergenerativity,” a theoretical and practical framework that can build the collective wisdom and inspire informed local action. Intergenerativity is defined and contextualized within the shared site programs of the Intergenerational School, a charter school in Cleveland, Ohio, that aims to foster creative exchange between the generations. Ultimately, it is argued that, by virtue of their intergenerative nature, intergenerational partnerships can be a powerful means of nurturing social, civic, and environmental responsibility and helping current and future generations address social and ecological challenges.

The urgent and interlocking social, economic and ecological crises faced by societies around the world require dialogue, empathy and above all, hope that transcends social divides. At a time of uncertainty and crisis, many societies are divided, with distrust and divides exacerbated by media representations pitting different groups against one another. Acknowledging intersectional interrelationships, this article considers one type of social distinction – generation – and focuses on how trust can be rebuilt across generations. To do this, the authors collated key insights from eight projects that shared space within a conference session foregrounding creative, intergenerational responses to the climate and related crises. Reflecting across the projects, they suggest fostering ongoing, empathetic dialogues across generations is key to addressing these challenges of the future, securing communities that are grounded as collaborative and culturally responsive, and resilient societies able to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of change.

Global climate change raises critical issues of intergenerational ethics. One of these issues involves what Stephen Gardiner calls intergenerational buck-passing (IGBP)—a pattern through which each generation does little to address climate change and instead passes the problem along to the next, progressively amplifying the climate crisis over time. The goal of this paper is to explore two key questions: (1) What is at the root of intergenera­tional buck-passing? and (2) What changes might help to disrupt it? To answer these questions, the author argues the need to understand and address the role of moral ambivalence in reinforcing the status quo and creating friction that impedes climate action. Confronting moral ambivalence may enable more thoughtful and just responses to climate change that support intergenerational solidarity and mutual flourishing.

With the Paris Agreement, countries have pledged to promote strategies and policies to substantially reduce their carbon emissions. Based on a modified version of the Theory of Planned Behavior, the authors implemented a new climate change educational program in 12 rural areas of China where adolescents communicated with local seniors in focus groups to discuss local climate over the past decades. Seniors’ memories of extreme climatic events generally were in concordance with meteorological data. The adolescents’ uncertainty about climate change exhibited significant change after the program, followed by concern, risk perception, and perceived behavioral control. The shift in adolescent concern and perceived behavioral control translated into greater willingness to support climate change mitigation. Thus, the authors suggest that climate change education should emphasize place-based strategies that highlight the relevance of global climate change through local impacts and individual experiences vis-a-vis inter-generational communication to promote greater engagement with climate change.

The environment poses the quintessential intergenerational challenge. In particular, given the growing older population with the considerable choice over how they spend their time, there is opportunity and need to engage elders with younger age groups to focus on these problems. The authors discuss the need and opportunity for older people to actively engage in environmental activism independently and with other age groups. In outlining several examples of these efforts, they speculate on what contributes to their success.

A double intergenerational conundrum abounds in sustainability science as young generations of researchers have relatively little influence on current strategic decisions, but inherit their potential future consequences as professionals as well as human-beings. Collaborating with early career researchers (ECRs) in global sustainability initiatives can help address this conundrum. Guided by a model for how enhanced collaboration with ECRs can emerge, the authors assess the current state of integration of ECRs in five major global sustainability initiatives. Highlighting the increasingly organized state of ECR networks, they find that initiatives increasingly collaborate with ECRs and that some initiatives integrate them at strategic decision-making levels. Yet, current forms of collaboration are often institutionally fragile and can be strengthened in this respect.

This article provides an overview of the paradigm shift as a result of contemporary socio-economic and environmental changes. The continuity of intergenerational transfer of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) faces challenges due to a number of factors, but most importantly being the erosion of traditional platforms for common sharing about the environment or environmental changes. From the study findings, it is seen how modern systems for communication such as the media, and new ways of learning about the environment such as through Extension workers in agriculture, are gradually overtaking traditional systems of knowledge sharing. In addition, the gradual inability of TEK to make accurate predictions about the environment in the context of a rapidly changing environment due to climate change is also causing distrust. For a generation that demands quick and tangible answers, TEK practices may not seem to satisfy this need.

Climate change is an unequivocal urgent threat to humans, living non-humans, ecosystems, and the planet felt on local through to global levels. One group of particular concern is youth, whose development is being impacted by the effects of the climate crisis. Intergenerational collaboration provides opportunities to bridge discussions between people with insights into past, present, and future generations; diverse and complementary points of views; knowledge of various life course stages; and diverse values and priorities.

This study focuses on the impact of an intergenerational sustainability leadership project on the development of students’ environmental literacy. The project involved high-school students and older adults in the community who learned and worked together on environmental issues developing original initiatives over a period of three years. The study examines environmental literacy development among the students. The project illustrated several positive social-environmental changes taking place in the community for the first time. The study emphasizes that when environmental education transcends the classroom, combining the forces and capabilities of adults/older adults and youth in the community, environmental literacy is developed and intensified. The relationships brought about common environmental interests, indicating a potential for empowering youth groups to take collaborative action upgrading the quality of life in the neighborhood for the benefit of all its inhabitants.

As climate change proceeds at an unprecedented rate, concern for the natural environment has increased. The world’s population aging also continues to rise at an unprecedented rate, giving greater attention to the implications of an older population. The two trends are linked through the fact that changes to the environment affect older adults, and older adults affect the environment. Sustainability is, therefore, an intergenerational phenomenon, and protecting resources today leaves a positive legacy and enhances quality of life for future generations. Older adults have much to share with younger generations about behaviors that promote sustainable living, yet few sustainability efforts are intergenerational in nature. Through exploring linkages between aging and sustainability, the authors identify intergenerational strategies to protect the environment and promote human rights and quality of life for older adults.

Complex environmental problems are typically resolved after the public is no longer willing to accept their risks and demands change. In the case of climate change, however, the politicization of the issue can result in adults ignoring the risks and accepting the status quo. New methods are needed to engage citizens in addressing climate change impacts. The authors argue that child-based climate communication is an understudied but promising pathway to incite climate action among children and adults alike. Children have unique perspectives on climate change, represent an audience that is easily reached through schools, and are arguably best equipped to navigate the ideologically fraught topic of climate change with older generations in ways that inspire action. They review research to support this novel communication approach and outline best practices for programmatic implementation and associated research.

Intergenerational programming, which brings children, youth, and older adults together for mutually beneficial interaction, represents a relatively new strategy for broadening the public's awareness and participation in environmental activities. To explore the potential benefits of involving older adults and young people in joint environmental education experiences, a study was conducted of an intergenerational outdoor education program in an environmental center in Central Pennsylvania. Senior adult volunteers were found to influence children to adopt an enriched sense of awareness and appreciation of the natural environment. Senior-student relations were influenced by staff facilitation styles, the roles taken by the seniors, and the intergenerational engagement format.

Climate change is happening, and human activity is the cause. What are we going to do about it? It is a practical question, but it also raises some philosophical issues. The goal of this chapter is to examine these philosophical issues, which include matters of self-interest and rational choice and moral issues about the value of nature, the nature of human values, and difficult issues about international justice and intergenerational morality. The temporal problem is an illustration of intergenerational asymmetry, or what some philosophers call the tyranny of the present. In each generation, people must decide whether they will collectively accept some costs in order to reduce greater harms and costs in the future or continue to pursue short-term gains and pass the problem on to the next generation. Because future people do not exist, they cannot bargain, reciprocate, compensate, reward, or punish us for what we do.

This article critically reflects on the methodological approach developed for a recent project based in Jinja, Uganda, that sought to generate new forms of environmental knowledge and action utilizing diverse forms of creative intergenerational practice embedded within a broader framework of community-based participatory research. This approach provided new opportunities for intergenerational dialogue in Jinja, generated increased civic environmental engagement, and resulted in a participant-led campaign to share knowledge regarding sustainable biomass consumption. The authors term this approach intergenerational community-based research and creative practice. They discuss the advantages of this model while also reflecting on the challenges of the approach.

Stakeholder participation is of high importance in UNESCO biosphere reserves as model regions for sustainable development; however, certain groups remain underrepresented. This paper proposes Intergenerational Practice (IP) as a means of involving youth and elderly women and explores its options and barriers, using the example of the Salzburger Lungau and Kärntner Nockberge Biosphere Reserve in Austria. The results reveal obstacles and motivations to participating in biosphere reserve implementation and intergenerational activities for the youth and the elderly women and imply that much potential for IP exists in the biosphere reserve region. The authors propose suitable solutions from the intergenerational field to overcome identified participation obstacles and suggest benefits of incorporating IP as a management tool into biosphere reserve activities. Suggestions for future research include evaluating applications of IP in the context of protected areas, testing of methods used in other contexts, and contribution to theory development.

The implementation of climate stability accounts for the most challenging contemporary global governance predicament that seems to pit today’s generation against future world inhabitants. In a trade-off of economic growth versus sustainability, a broad-based international coalition could establish climate stability. As a novel angle towards climate justice, this paper proposes to search for a well-balanced climate mitigation and adaptation public policy mix guided by micro- and macroeconomic analysis results, and a new way of funding climate change mitigation and adaptation policies through broad-based climate stability bonds that also involve future generations that complement taxation and emission trading system solutions. Finding innovative ways to finance climate abatement over time coupled with future risk prevention as well as adaptation to higher temperatures appears as an innovative and easily-implementable solution to nudge overlapping generations towards climate justice in the sustainability domain.

The call for climate action has attracted global support, especially among youth. Over time, climate discourse has turned increasingly hostile toward both younger and older generations, potentially engendering intergenerational conflict. The authors selected a sample of 50 international influential individuals to gain an overview of the common views in current climate discourse to examine how they may impact intergenerational relations. The results are broadly divided into two categories—messages of intergenerational tension and messages of intergenerational solidarity. The authors found that although both types of messaging communicate similar facts and concerns, their presentation may either unite or divide different generations. Therefore, to work toward a common future for the benefit for all ages, it is essential for polarizing and accusatory sentiments to be replaced with messages of inclusivity and cooperation.

The problem of climate change is typically discussed as a problem of intergenerational tradeoffs. Typically, it is supposed that the current generations must make sacrifices today for the improved well-being of future generations. The case for climate change mitigation becomes a question of the balancing of current and future well-being, for example, according to a social discount factor. Though this approach is common, the perspective is too narrow. By using intergenerational fiscal policy, it may be possible to fund climate change mitigation with public debt, so that in effect future generations bear both the costs and the benefits of climate change mitigation. In this way, the social discount rate is not relevant. What is relevant is whether future generations would indeed be willing to pay the price of mitigation in return for reduced climate change. The current generation must act as a steward for future generations, assessing whether they would (or should) bear the costs of mitigation.

The environment is a natural connector of generations; younger people and older people are looking for ways to improve the state of the natural world in which we live. This article describes the benefits of intergenerational environmental programs and shows why this work is compelling for both environmental and intergenerational practitioners. The authors highlight a number of creative and successful programs that serve as inspiration for those interested in expanding into this field and provide recommendations for developing intergenerational programs.

Many of the most pressing environmental challenges we face—from climate change to habitat and species loss—require present generations of decision-makers to act pro-socially in the best interests of future generations. One factor known to inhibit intergenerational altruism is the absence of direct reciprocal exchange between generations. Research has suggested, however, that present decision-makers can be induced to engage in intergenerational reciprocity. The authors current investigation provides additional evidence for the role of gratitude as a powerful mechanism underlying such intergenerational decision-making, showing that individual differences in gratitude uniquely predict increased perceptions of responsibility for future generations. A sense of responsibility toward future generations in turn predicts: increased climate change beliefs and concern, increased pro-environmental beliefs and environmental intentions, and increased support for environmental policies. Future interventions can harness the prosocial moral emotion of gratitude to combat the temporal discount and promote intergenerational environmental decision-making.

This chapter focuses on the key issues encountered by older people living in rural and remote areas of Australia and examined the challenges facing farming families, whose livelihoods have been impacted by globalization, climate change and drought. A range of complex issues facing older farming families, including loss of farm income leading to a delay in retirement age, and intergenerational issues involved in succession planning, have been highlighted. Older people in rural areas are vulnerable to both the disadvantages associated with rural living and those associated with ageing. The concept of rurality is important, as it determines the ways in which older people think about their identity and their everyday lives, and this is particularly true for those who both live and work on the land. Practitioners working with older people in rural and remote areas must also deal with significant practical dilemmas.

This article provides evidence and a rationale based on adaptive governance studies for why creating meaningful youth engagement should be understood in terms of intergenerational dialogue, collaboration, learning, and substantive decision-making in global environmental governance. The authors have centered their discussion on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as the largest global conservation organization. They have described the development of intergenerational thinking and action within the IUCN, and discussed intergenerational governance as being essential for addressing nature conservation challenges faced by local communities in times of increasing global uncertainty. The authors conclude by providing recommendations for enhancing intergenerational dialogue and building intergenerational governance structures within global conservation organizations.