The World They Inherit: The young and their future on a dangerous planet
The global youth are inheriting a planet of multiplying dangers. Young people are more connected than any generation in history, linked at light speed across continents and cultures. Yet they are threatened by ingrained, stubborn ways of power. Can they bring about change?
Slumping economies, conflict and lack of opportunity at home are pushing many young people across borders — even oceans.
For much of the world, Iraq is a distant tragedy. But for its children raised amid chaos and war, that legacy has defined their generation.
Today’s young are born into a digitally interconnected reality where big data and artificial intelligence will shape everyday existence long before the children are old enough to protect their privacy or give consent.
Deforestation is erasing the line between humans and wild animals — and increasing the chances of the next global pandemic.
Young activists are coming of age when the effects of the climate crisis are already being felt — foreshadowing a perilous future. They want the United Nations COP26 summit to reduce global warming.
The pandemic pushed the world’s poor into direr straits, but for some young people it launched careers and improved chances for wealth. The diverging fates of young adults point to the increased inequalities the pandemic has revealed in a world facing dramatic change.
Young voices demanding democracy and civil liberties in Asia have been suppressed by corruption, growing inequality and the widening influence of a repressive China.
The pandemic made the poor of Latin America poorer and set back a fledgling middle class throughout the region, threatening a generation.
As the Communist Party’s centennial nears, China is erasing official wrongs and party history to create a triumphalist story for a young generation.
