🗞️ Why in News UNEP’s report “Navigating New Horizons: A Global Foresight Report on Planetary Health and Human Wellbeing” (2024) officially warned of a massive emerging crisis gripping the world’s youth — eco-anxiety or “climate grief.”
Key Data
- DTE Opinion Survey (2025): 88% of youth (aged 16-25) feel the climate is changing; 94% are worried about their future; over half feel “betrayed” and “helpless”
- Anyone born after February 1986 has never experienced a month with “normal” temperatures
- UNEP termed it “an emotional catastrophe being visited on the next generations”
Manifestations
- Eco-paralysis: Numbing inability to act; chronic stress
- Urban citizens forced to incur massive out-of-pocket health expenses (purifiers, masks, taxis) just to breathe — “clean air” has become a luxury commodity
- Eco-anxiety is altering demographic choices — many youth deliberately choosing to remain child-free to avoid subjecting children to an uninhabitable future
Way Forward
- Channel eco-anxiety into grassroots activism (“Hope is a verb”)
- Broaden educational curriculum to include “consumption literacy” — understanding carbon footprint lifecycle of everyday items
- Emphasise mindful, local consumption over convenience
UPSC Angle
- GS1: Social issues, demographic trends, youth
- GS3: Environment, climate change, public health
- Essay: “Is hope the best strategy against climate despair?”