Things are getting hot — in the real and the virtual world. The year that passed, data suggest, was one of the warmest in a decade. The New Year, too, seems to have turned on the heat: large swathes of Australia are being singed by bush fires, which have caused significant losses to life and property. Meanwhile, the sparks are flying in a segment of the virtual world too, if dating apps are any indication. A report published by Tinder, the world’s most popular dating application, has found that love talk among love birds, from the flock known as Generation Z, resonates with such phrases as “climate change” — the cause of the fire and brimstone in the real world — “environment” and “social justice”. The Tinder study confirms what an earlier report, this one was compiled by Deloitte, had found two years ago: Gen Z is serious about its fidelity to the environment. Love among the species apparently freezes when one partner finds out that the other is not committed to green and other social causes.

Tinder and Deloitte have caused heartburn among millennials and pre-millennials. While these two generations set their hearts on luxuries — millennials apparently crave travelling over everything else — Gen Z has taken the pain to put its heart in the right place, passionately engaging with greater, existential causes while — can there be any greater proof of commitment? — in the throes of passion. The sound of this unique heartbeat echoed around the world when, in March 2019, over one million young people, including children, in over 2000 cities participated in a climate strike, which proved to be a stupendous success. The world’s most celebrated climate activist — seventeen years old and, hence, a Gen Z — put the global leadership to shame with her impassioned plea for meaningful intervention at the climate deliberations in Madrid. The opponents of climate action have reacted with scorn, but that could be because they are beginning to feel the heat from these angry young men and women. Donald Trump has asked Greta Thunberg to seek help to contain her anger, while the Brazilian president — a pal of Mr Trump? — called the young lady a ‘brat’.

Unfortunately for Mr Trump, their anger is righteous. Young people are beginning to realize that what has been put in peril by indifferent, complicit adults — conniving politicians, amoral business lobbies, profiteering corporations et al — is, effectively, the future of the planet and, with it, the fate of humanity. The scale of the environmental degradation is not the only factor that has turned post-millennials into eco-warriors. As always, education has played a pivotal role in their transition. Research has found that rising ‘climate literacy’ has brought children out on the streets. Uniform and universal amendments to the curriculum to sensitize young minds could yet alter the fate that seems imminent.

The Tinder report is heartening in another way. It shows that intelligent people are capable of seamlessly fusing the personal and the political. The taste of revolutionary love, history has shown, is usually the sweetest.