Fixing climate change should not only be up to the rising generation. My earliest experience of talking to an adult about climate change is etched into my memory. I was sitting in the backseat, explaining what I learned about climate change and how scared I was that nobody would take action to stop it.
We stopped at a red light, and she turned around and said, “I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with to stop it.” I sat there, speechless. Here I was, a kid, being told that it was all up to me to save my future from the actions of past generations.
Even since then, whenever I hear an adult tell me how I “will enjoy a job solving climate change” or how sad they feel for my generation, but there’s nothing they can do about it, I have to bite my tongue to keep from yelling out my opinion.
I don’t think that it should be up to our generation to “solve” climate change. Why should it be solely our responsibility to save this planet? If adults feel so guilty, why don’t more of them do something about it?
If there was one thing I wish every adult who feels guilty for the burden they have placed on their children to know, it’s this: if you can talk, if you can eat, if you can think, you can be part of the solution.
I think that life is collectivist by nature. Ants, weak on their own, can become one of the most powerful biological forces on the planet together. Similarly, it is my belief that the power of humanity as a whole is so much stronger than we realize. We are literally changing the climate of the entire earth with our small, everyday decisions, so why wouldn’t we be able to reverse it?
According to an article on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website, in 2018, an estimated 292.4 million tons of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) were generated in the USA, a number too big to even imagine. Even though 60% of this staggering amount of waste is compostable, only 25 million tons were composted that year (8.55% of total MSW and 14.25% of compostable MSW).
The smallest collective actions can alter the course of this disaster. The average amount of trash each person in the US creates is just under 5 pounds a day. If even a third of the US population decided to compost their compostable waste, over 500 million pounds of trash could be diverted from a landfill and given a second life.
The burden of the fight against climate change should not just rest on my generation. It is everyone’s responsibility to do what they can.
avery f • Dec 14, 2025 at 5:56 pm
I agree that it is baffling to hear that reversing the effects of climate change rely upon the future generations. I believe that climate change is one of the biggest problems in the modern world, and one that needs to be acted on immediately. While it\’s everyone\’s responsibility to “save” the planet, it\’s also important to hold major contributors to climate change accountable. Collective actions aren\’t just recycling and composting, but protesting harmful business practices and advocating for policies that support cleaner energy. While the burden of climate change shouldn\’t fall on the younger generations, it shouldn\’t fall onto solely individuals either.
Elise C • Dec 12, 2025 at 9:44 am
I agree that in the issue of climate change, the latter generation is tasked with the responsibility to “fix” the world. I know that this is an issue that has many controversial opinions; there are actually some people who believe that climate change is a myth despite the evidence and research that there is too much carbon in our environment which will cause global warming. I think the reality is that everyone is responsible for our planet, since it is our world. Hence, it is everyone’s responsibility to contribute to creating a non-littering, cleaner environment for not only us, but the countless species that thrive on Earth too. If we all do our part by riding a bike where we could have taken a car, plant a tree, re-use items which you would typically waste, and so much more, we can create a brighter future, but it will only work if we are together.
Augusto Q • Dec 11, 2025 at 9:26 am
I agree with the notion that climate change is not merely an issue of which the future youth must confront but rather one the world must engage with collectively, though that said, I do often feel that the methods of individual contribution so often promoted such as recycling, compost, or turning the lights off provide people with a false sense of proactivity. As it stands currently, the production of energy, be that via coal, oil etc, is by great margin (90%) the leading cause of pollution in the world, moreover, roughly one third of the Earth’s pollution stems from China, followed by the United States, and then India; together, these three nations culminate in over half of all the emitted pollution on the planet. Therefore in examining such facts, it becomes apparent that the solution in combating climate change is rooted in the means of energy production. Likewise, though the rest of the world is surely important, the reins of the struggle lies in the palms of the three listed nations above, as both enormous pollution contributors and international examples.
Malea • Dec 10, 2025 at 11:33 am
The common notion of adults that it is our job to clean up the mess they’ve left behind is unfair, not reasonable, and ruins the shot of change all together. Older adults are the exact reason why we are in this predicament. From not caring about recycling to not doing anything to solve the issue of climate change at all, they are making it more and more difficult for kids of our generation to have a huge impact on reversing climate change at all. The responsibility of fighting climate change doesn’t start when we are adults, it starts now when we are kids and when the adults that are putting it all on us are still here. They have just as much of a responsibility as we do. The more they wait for us to take action, the worse things get for us, them, and children of the future.
Jonas Couzin-Frankel • Dec 10, 2025 at 11:26 am
I agree with your perspective. I think that it is everyone’s responsibility to do what they can to reverse climate change since almost everyone has contributed to the problem. Right now, I think the role that adults play the most is informing the younger generation about the threats of climate change. When I talk to adults about climate change, most of them emphasize how terrible it is and how something needs to be done. While they may not be doing much about climate change, they are focusing on passing on information about how much needs to be done to remedy climate change. I think that if adults are able to pass on information regarding climate change, there is a much higher chance of our generation being able to come up with some sort of solution.
Nathaniel • Dec 9, 2025 at 8:38 pm
I think that, ultimately, it will be up to our generation to reverse climate change, but that doesn’t mean adults can’t contribute. People worldwide can chip in by working to lower their own personal carbon footprint. However, I think the most important role adults can play is educating the thinkers of the future. When I attended a chemistry program at UPenn, I had the opportunity to work with professors who were investigating chemical techniques to reduce climate change. These professors’ principal focus was passing on their knowledge and educating students on how to tackle climate change issues. Our generation has the passion for tackling climate change, but we need the tools and knowledge of the people who came before us to make an impact. That’s why I believe we can only make a real difference by working together with adults to solve the universal problem of climate change.
Liam H • Dec 9, 2025 at 1:51 pm
I’m inclined to agree with you in that thrusting the burden of fixing climate change onto the younger generations is, at best, foolish. At worst, it’s quietly saying that it can wait. That, since those before us decided not to take action, it must not be all that urgent and we can just keep going how we have been for just a little bit longer because, hey, maybe the next generation will be passionate about climate and maybe they’ll make the change. It’s simply not fair to tell us to shoulder all the responsibility, and yet shouldering it we’ve been. Not to mention, if you don’t mind me getting off-track, I’ve noticed a phenomenon of the middle-class being blamed for climate change. I recently had to write an essay responding to the claim that, if you’re not donating all excess money you make to important causes, then you’re part of the problem. Things like that feel uniquely tone-deaf when you remember how much garbage billionaires and mega-conglomerates pump into our world.
Jenny • Dec 9, 2025 at 10:35 am
I totally agree with the ideas that humans should be collectively taking the responsibility of solving ecological problems. I believe that the idea—that the elder generation put the responsibility, if not hot plate, onto the future generation—holds also true when it comes to the abuse of resources. There IS a scarcity of natural resources, and people are abusing it during technological innovations, massive productions and social developments. It seems like everyone is only considering what they could get the best out of the resource without considering the availability of the resource itself, because even if resources will run out and even if the earth is going to die one day, they feel fine because that day would not be their day.
Solomon • Dec 9, 2025 at 9:03 am
I definitely agree with the perspectives you offered in this article and appreciate the use of varied evidence. I have talked to people from older generations and I think in these conversations I have been hopeful because many of the people I have talked to have expressed a collective cross generational partnership in trying to work on this incredibly terrible climate crisis we face. I strongly agree with your claim that the responsibility of the work of fixing our climate crisis should not just be sprung on our generation, but is something other generations have responsibility for addressing with us. I do believe that it is imperative that our generation steps up and takes responsibility for addressing the climate crisis, but I think that the generations that came before also need to commit themselves to it. At my elementary school I remember there was a compost and gardening program which I thought was a unique and productive cross-generational partnership that led to meaningful change and ultimately reduced the amount of trash our school threw away.
Una • Dec 9, 2025 at 2:14 pm
I love the idea of starting a compost program or other functional climate-forward initiatives at AFS. I think one of the most difficult parts that our generation is facing is the fact that we are supposed to fix climate change, but the way we have been taught about environmentalism is choppy and disjointed at best. A history project here, a science report there, but as a whole, our world is not set up in a way that lends itself to make sustainability easy. True change will only happen when everyone commits to making all of their decisions with the environment in mind.
Helene • Dec 9, 2025 at 8:40 am
I completely agree with this sentiment, there is no reason why we shouldn’t try today to limit our carbon footprint and take the necessary steps to prevent further burdening an already desperate earth with more waste. Though I think another point that the adults of today should be more in touch with is collectively holding large corporations and the obscenely wealthy accountable for their destructive practices. We all equally have a responsibility to do our part, but after we have successfully achieved sustainable practices in our daily lives we need to turn to the larger root of the climate crisis: overproduction from reckless companies. Both the obscenely wealthy and the corporations make up a completely disproportionate percentage of yearly waste and pollution, if we collectively talk about this and begin getting legislation passed against it, only then can the problem really be addressed today.