Why are we teaching kids scarcity in an age of abundance?

Students head back to classrooms this month. Many will arrive 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% said they 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…