Studies show teenagers are woefully undereducated on climate and energy. Students head back to classrooms this month, many arriving already convinced their future is hopeless.
In a Lancet Planetary Health study of 10,000 young people across 10 countries, 75% said the future is frightening and 56% believe humanity is doomed.
We are graduating energy-illiterate students at precisely the moment the country has to build.
A 2025 PNAS study found one in five Americans aged 16 to 24 is afraid to have children because of climate change. This gloom has deepened over time: In Yale’s long-running survey, the share of Americans aged 18 to 34 who say global warming is already harming their country rose from 40% in 2012 to 64% in 2022.
What’s causing this dramatic shift? It could be what’s missing in the classroom.
Teenagers name teachers as their leading source on climate and energy. Seventy-one percent say they learned “a lot” or “some” from a teacher, ahead of parents at 67% and social media at 63%. Yet the median high school science teacher spends one or two hours a year on the subject, and three-quarters of teachers report having never been trained to teach it.
The teaching gap shows. Nearly three-quarters of teens believe ocean plastic is a major contributor to climate change. Energy illiteracy is even worse: Fewer than one-third of high schoolers can name the three sources that generate most American electricity. Energy literacy scores among high school seniors fell between 2017 and 2022.
What fills the gap is social media. Researchers at the University at Buffalo, writing last fall in Climatic Change, found heavier social media use correlates with what they call “climate doom”—the belief that warming will collapse social and economic order. When other researchers examined 100 climate videos on TikTok, only eight cited a reputable source.
A video feed full of ignorance and despair doesn’t make a good curriculum.
The consequences are both economic and emotional. After 15 years of flat electricity demand, the U.S. is now climbing again at roughly 2% annually since 2020. Data centers are on pace to double their share of peak demand within two years. We are graduating energy-illiterate students at precisely the moment the country has to build.
For a teenager trying to figure out what to do with his life, that ignorance could be costly. Recent warnings from AI experts suggest technology could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years—concentrated in fields that used to hire new graduates.
But this is not the whole story. Electricians are growing at three times the rate of the average occupation, with roughly 73,500 openings each year. Nuclear technicians earn a median salary above $104,000, often without a four-year degree. Applied trades have added 2.5 million jobs since 2019, and the average utility worker is past 50 and nearing retirement.
Students need to know the full picture—both job prospects and climate impacts. Natural gas displacing coal drove the largest share of the decline in American power-sector emissions, according to the Energy Information Administration. Technology companies have committed more than $50 billion to nuclear power, more than in any previous decade. Three Mile Island restarts next year. Most new reactors arrive in the 2030s.
For a 16-year-old who wants to work in the nuclear industry, that timeline sounds like job security.
Some groups are working to fill the energy education gap. Generation Atomic runs a nuclear science program for grades 6 through 12. The American Conservation Coalition organizes young people around nuclear power and permitting reform. Blue Energy Nation’s BENERGY course launches nationally this fall. It features six modules built for homeschool families but is easily folded into any science, civics, or economics class.
Students shouldn’t be left to form a worldview based on TikTok videos. We should teach them where energy comes from, how it impacts their futures, and what it will need from them.
