Pirate's Cove

If all teens hear from the news and their teachers and politicians is that they are doomed from a (small) rise in Earth’s temperatures and that temperatures are SOOOON!!!!! going to be out of control, that the next mass extinction is already here, that it’s all doom, how do you think the kiddies will react?

Climate Change Linked to Rise in Mental Distress Among Teens, according to Drexel Study

Worsening human-induced climate change may have effects beyond the widely reported rising sea levels, higher temperatures, and impacts on food supply and migration – and may also extend to influencing mental distress among high schoolers in the United States.

According to a representative survey of 38,616 high school students from 22 public school districts in 14 U.S. states, the quarter of those adolescents who had experienced the highest number of days in a climate disaster within the past two years and the past five years – such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, droughts, and wildfire – had 20% higher odds of developing mental distress than their peers who experienced few or no disaster events.

The paper is the first large scale research looking at mental health of adolescents following multiple disaster events — including the timing, frequency, and duration of the events – spanning 83 federally declared climate disasters occurring within 10 years before the survey was completed. The findings, using May 2019 data on sadness/hopelessness and short sleep from the U.S. Youth Risk Behavior Survey and disaster data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, were published this month in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports. (snip)

Respondents reported mental health distress by responding affirmatively to persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness and short sleep duration, two factors that previous studies strongly link to mental health disorders among adolescents. The group controlled for other factors that may influence mental health, such as age, race, gender, experience of bullying, concerns about school safety and household income.

So, this is a self fulfilling prophecy: tell kids they are doomed then act surprised when they are mental messes. Of course, for all their caterwauling the kiddies sure do not have any issues using tons of electricity, traveling around to take their selfies and vids (often in fossil fueled vehicles), and buying fast fashion. Ordering delivery which comes in fossil fueled vehicles. And so forth.

As the results cannot prove causation, the authors say they would like to see more studies into the range of effects of climate change on youth and methods to improve preparing for potential worsening mental health among this population.

So, they can’t prove that it is from anthropogenic climate change? Huh. We’ve all been through big weather events. The kids think that things have only ever happened to them.