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In 2024, when the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) released “Navigating New Horizons: A Global Foresight Report on Planetary Health and Human Wellbeing,” it warned of an emerging crisis gripping the world’s young: Eco-anxiety, also described as climate grief. It is a negative emotional response to the threats posed by environmental degradation and climate change. The UNEP report called climate anxiety among young people “a crisis in plain sight”, warning of “an emotional catastrophe being visited on the next generations.”
Evidence of this unease is widespread. Down To Earth conducted an opinion survey in October-November 2025, among over 300 people aged 16-25 years—the first generation of the 21st century. It shows how entrenched eco-anxiety has become. Nearly 88 per cent of respondents said they felt the climate is changing around them; 67 per cent said these changes were already affecting their daily lives and lifestyles.
Climatic studies tracking the changes suggest that those born in the past 25 years may have never experienced a “normal” climate. From heatwaves to cyclones to floods, the planet’s pulse has changed, and young people are feeling it more than ever. “The climate currently behaves like an athlete on steroids,” says Erich Fischer, a senior scientist at Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich and a lead author of the UN’s climate science assessments. Scientists at Climate Central, an international association of scientists and journalists reporting and researching climate change, note that anyone born in and after February 1986 has not experienced a single month with normal temperature; each month since has been warmer than the average.
What changes do the young associate with climate change? In the opinion survey, nine symptoms, ranging from unseasonal weather to warmer climate to more insects and pests, were listed for respondents to tick with the option of selecting more than one. More than two-thirds of respondents associated climate change with warmer temperature and unseasonal heat or rainfall. Nearly 40 per cent linked it to smoggy or foggy days, while 36 per cent cited “change in food quality” as one of the climate manifestations. Extreme cold was identified by 38 per cent respondents as another manifestation of climate change, and 32 per cent reported experiencing an increase in insects and pests.
Asked whether climate change affects various economic groups differently, 61 per cent said the impacts are felt equally across society, whether rich, poor or middle-income groups. Among those who perceived unequal effects, the consensus was clear: the poor suffer most. On gender, opinions were more uniform. About 90 per cent of respondents said climate change affects men and women equally.
The emotional toll is evident. Respondents were asked to identify their feelings about climate change from six options—frightened and sad, anxious, angry, helpless, betrayed and indifferent—and were allowed to select multiple responses. All emotions were widely voted, underscoring the depth of climate anxiety. As many as 57 per cent respondents de-scribed themselves as “anxious”; 54 per cent as “helpless”; and 43 per cent as “frightened and sad”. Many also reported feeling “angry” or “betrayed”.
Looking ahead, fear persists. Nearly 53 per cent expect climate change to lead to more diseases; over one-third anticipate food shortages; and 45 per cent foresee water shortages. An overwhelming 94 per cent respondents said they are worried about their future because of climate change. Half described government action on the issue as “disappointing.”
Such reactions, argue some experts, are entirely rational. “Our children’s anxiety is a completely rational reaction given the inadequate responses to climate change they are seeing from governments,” says Caroline Hickman, from the University of Bath who co-led a major survey on climate anxiety. Children and young people, she notes, are mobilising worldwide and taking governments to court; arguing that failure to act on climate change violates human rights.
This article is from the January 1-15, 2026 special edition, "Anxiety in a warming world", featuring exclusive interviews with Dia Mirza, Kalki Koechlin, Kiran Rao, Nila Madhab Panda, Sajana Sajeevan, Tsewang Chuskit, Manish Mehrotra and others, as well as columns by scientists, activists and journalists