Older adults more environmentally conscious than the youngest generation

Older adults believe that they live more environmentally conscious than the younger generation, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS). That opinion holds true when it comes to flying: the statistics agency reports that young adults fly a lot more than older people.

They also feel less shame about it than older people. There are also more older adults than young people who have said they are willing to fly less or not at all to help the climate.

The older people get, the higher their climate awareness becomes, according to the research. The group of 18 to 25 years old gives themselves a 6,2 out of 10 for climate awareness. This is the lowest score out of all the age groups that CBS has covered. The oldest age group, 65 and over, gave themselves a 7.

Over 61 percent of the youngsters up to 25 years of age have said that they have flown in the last year. The 25 to 35-year-olds were the second highest, with 57,5 percent.

Of the people they asked between 55 and 75 years old, a quarter admitted to flying in the last 12 months. Less than 14 percent of people over 75 flew. The willingness to avoid flying to help the environment is the largest in this group. It is the only age category where over half the people surveyed were willing to make the sacrifice.

Guilt about flying was also the most prominent among the oldest generation, according to the Statistics Bureau. A third of the people over 65 admitted to feeling guilty about flying. Just 22 percent of the younger generation felt guilt.

The younger people asked did see the most scope for improvement according to CBS: 60 percent think that they should live more environmentally conscious.

Chair of the Jonge Kilimaatbeweging, translated to the young climate movement in English, Dion Huidekooper, has said that it is “not crazy that young people like the generations before them want to see some parts of the world.”

He claims that politicians should make it more attractive to travel in a more environmentally friendly manner. “Youngsters see advertisements on Social Media constantly advertising airplane tickets, which can be booked with a few clicks of a mouse, while it is a lot more complicated to book an international train ticket, and it also costs a lot. In these times of a climate crisis, that is incomprehensible.”

The chair of the Jonge Klimaatbeweging sees youngsters making conscious decisions in other areas for the climate if the option is not too difficult for them. “They eat more vegetarian than the past generations and travel more often using the train than a car.”