This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Ecological grief is growing—and our current approach to climate change education isn't keeping pace. There has been a surge in climate emotion research globally, documenting widespread experiences of fear, grief, anxiety and hopelessness.
New findings suggest the way we approach climate change education may be harming young people rather than helping them to face this grief head-on. In this article, we share insights from 39 young people about how they experience climate education in a rapidly changing world and how we can change it for the better. International research has shown that youth want educational spaces that support discussions around the emotional impacts of climate change.
Our research with young people aged 16 to 34 backs this up while also revealing their desire for community-based climate conversations and approaches that focus on how they experience ecological crises. In 2025, we held seven online discussion groups inspired by a "climate café" model designed to offer space for people to share their climate emotions. Groups of up to nine young people from various places in Ontario were invited to tell us about everyday climate emotions and how they typically learn about climate change.
We recruited participants via the University of Guelph's research web page and through social media channels and community networks. Participating youth self-represented using diverse identities and social locations. Thirty-four of 39 participants identified as racialized.
Three people among this group identified as both racialized and Indigenous from another country. The remaining five participants identified as white. Some participants described learning about climate change by volunteering with community groups.
Participants described learning about climate change in school as a one-off "unit" or "topic," often given "surface-level treatment." This reflects significant fragmentation between Canadian climate policy and provincial education curricula. Even in provinces and territories playing leadership roles in climate policy, education policy minimally addresses climate change. Although the Ontario Ministry of Education has committed to embedding learning about the environment, many participants described an educational focus on individual habits alone, such as recycling.
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