Going for gold… and green

Whilst the UK has been concentrating on the Olympics and its legacy for young people, interesting new research has revealed that we should perhaps be getting youngsters to achieve sustainable success as well as Olympic gold.

A new study from the USA has revealed that 63% of teenagers agree that their generation is not taking enough action to help solve environmental problems.

The poll, commissioned by Canon USA and conducted online by Harris Interactive, polled 563, 14 to 18-year-old teenagers across the United States to investigate their understanding of, and interest in, environmental activities. It found that 75% of youngsters believe that humans have had a major impact on climate change, such as changes in temperature and rising sea levels.

And the top three environmental changes that many teens fear will impact the quality of life in their future are poor air quality (66%), global warming (61%), and poor management of rubbish (59%).

Rising sea levels are the least of their concerns; less than a third (31%) said they felt this will impact their quality of life in the future.

The results did, however, reveal that a majority of students are willing to do more, from volunteering to clean up public areas (56%) to recycling (85%) and reducing energy usage, such as turning off unnecessary lights (85%).

Whilst London 2012 has been fantastic, surely it’s time we helped young people achieve the same level of environmental success as their peers have achieved on the sports field?

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