Environmental attitudes and behaviour of secondary school students in Hong Kong

Summary A postal survey of 992 secondary students in Hong Kong using the Weigel and Weigel environmental concern scale was conducted to investigate their environmental attitudes which were reflected in a readiness to engage in various pro-environmental behaviours including paper recycling at school and at home and the use of less tissues and plastic bags. The results indicated that students' expressed great concern about the environment and exhibited a strong willingness to participate in pro-environmental behaviour. However, students' overoptimism towards technological development and the perceived importance of the benefits of modern consumer goods were two major factors that contradicted their concern for environment. The Pearson correlation coefficient between environmental concern and comprehensive behavioural intention was strong and positive (0.52). Television and school were cited as major sources of environmental information. Mass media were more important than personal media in the dissemination of environmental information. Female students, older students and students living in private housing held more positive environmental attitudes and were more willing to engage in pro-environmental behaviour. Factor analysis indicated that the environmental concern scale was composed of two factors, personal sacrifice and optimism/issue.Ms Kara K.W. Chan is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University. She has previously worked in the advertising and public relations profession and as a statistician for the Hong Kong Government. She is actively involved in research on Hong Kong and China's mass communication and advertising industry, consumer behaviour and the promotion of pro-environmental behaviour.     

Use of loglinear models to assess factors influencing concern for the natural environment

Since it is necessary to isolate the most significant factors influencing personal concern for the environment, this paper utilizes loglinear models for identifying the interactions and interrelationships underlying multidimensional environmental survey data. A field study in Guyana conducted face-to-face interviews with 1600 citizens. Acquired categorical data were then subjected to loglinear modeling techniques to determine what significance the factors education, age, residential location, and gender have on personal concern for the environment. The loglinear models obtained from the five-dimensional contingency table suggest that there is a direct relationship between education and personal concern for the environment. Age has an interaction with education, and some influence on environmental concern, with younger respondents expressing higher concern for the environment than older respondents. Other results from the loglinear model demonstrate that residential location and the gender of the respondents do not have any statistically significant association with personal concern for the environment.     

Environmental Awareness, Economic Orientation, and Farming Practices: A Comparison of Organic and Conventional Farmers

/ This study examines similarities and differences between organic and conventional farmers. We explore the factors that underlie farmers' conservation attitudes and behaviors, including demographic and farm characteristics, awareness of and concern for environmental problems associated with agriculture, economic orientation toward farming, and self-reported conservation practices. A series of intensive personal interviews was conducted with 25 farmers in Washtenaw County, Michigan, USA, using both qualitative and quantitative survey methods. The findings indicate that both groups of farmers share a concern for the economic risks associated with farming, although the organic farmers reported a significantly greater concern for long-term sustainability and a greater willingness to incur present risk to gain future benefits. Organic farmers expressed a greater awareness of and concern for environmental problems associated with agriculture. Organic farmers also scored significantly higher on a multifaceted measure of conservation practices, although both groups had a fairly high adoption rate. Implications of these findings are discussed, relative to economic risks of farming, implications for new farmers, effectiveness of conservation education and government programs, and impact of farm size and crop diversity.KEY WORDS: Environmental attitudes; Conservation behaviors; Organic farming; Agricultural sustainability     

Alternative approaches to flood mitigation: a case study of Bangladesh

Floods were by far the most damaging type of natural disasters during the 1990s, in terms of both human impacts and socio-economic losses. Vulnerability to flooding disasters around the world is almost always differentiated by the socio-economic conditions of different income groups in the disaster area. In general, the poorer the income group (or the country) the more vulnerable it is likely to be to the adverse impacts of floods. The article argues that Bangladesh is the world's most flood-prone developing country in terms of the relative socio-economic impacts of floods. While conventional flood control strategies tend to be based on structural engineering approaches—such as the construction of large-scale embankments, diversion canals and dams—this article argues that more emphasis should be given to alternative, non-structural measures. The main lesson from recent flooding disasters in Bangladesh is that, in the absence of expensive structural measures, many non-structural ones can go a long way towards reducing vulnerability to and mitigating the impacts of floods.     

Heat wave vulnerability and exposure mapping for Osaka City,Japan

Heat waves and heat-related stresses are increasing environmental concerns in urban areas. The impact of heat waves is dependent on the intensity and duration of each event and on underlying environmental and socio-demographic factors which influence population vulnerability. In order to develop effective adaptation strategies, it is important to develop a method to clearly identify the most vulnerable areas based on these factors. The purpose of this study is to develop and map a heat wave vulnerability index combined with heat exposure analysis to identify areas where interventions can be targeted. The vulnerability index was derived from a principle component analysis of eight key variables that influence heat wave vulnerability. Eight proxy measures of vulnerability were obtained from 2010 census and land-use data for the 1904 census districts of Osaka City. Three principle components explained >77 % of the variance (age, employment and education; social isolation; density and lack of green space). The components were combined and weighted to produce a vulnerability score for each census district. The vulnerability scores ranged from 0 to 106, were categorised into eight vulnerability levels and were overlaid with fine-scale air temperature observations. The resulting output identified the distribution of population vulnerability and exposure. This assessment of vulnerability, combining exposure and sensitivity components, can provide precedent for efficient, targeted action to be taken to reduce the impact of heat waves at present and under climate change.     

Social Dimensions of Urban Flood Experience,Exposure, and Concern

With growing urban populations and climate change, urban flooding is an important global issue, even in dryland regions. Flood risk assessments are usually used to identify vulnerable locations and populations, flooding experience patterns, or levels of concern about flooding, but rarely are all of these approaches combined. Furthermore, the social dynamics of flood concerns, exposure, and experience are underexplored. We combined geographic and survey data on household‐level measures of flood experience, concern, and exposure in Utah's urbanizing Wasatch Front. We asked: (1) Are socially vulnerable groups more likely to be exposed to flood risk? (2) How common are flooding experiences among urban residents, and how are these experiences related to sociodemographic characteristics and exposure? and (3) How concerned are urban residents about flooding, and does concern vary by exposure, flood experience, and sociodemographic characteristics? Although floodplain residents were more likely to be White and have higher incomes, respondents who were of a racial/ethnic minority, were older, had less education, and were living in floodplains were more likely to report flood experiences and concern about flooding. Flood risk management approaches need to address social as well as physical sources of vulnerability to floods and recognize social sources of variation in flood experiences and concern.     

The relationship between mining and socio-economic well being in Australia’s regions

This paper examines the relationship between quality of life indicators and the gross value of minerals production from Australian regions. We used quality of life indicators, aggregated for 71 local government areas containing mining activities, of household income, housing affordability, access to communication services, educational attainment, life expectancy, and unemployment. We find no evidence of systematic negative associations between quality of life and the gross value of minerals production. Instead, mining activity has a positive impact on incomes, housing affordability, communication access, education and employment across regional and remote Australia. Whilst we do not establish causality between mining activity and quality of life, our analysis prompts a rethink of the resource curse as it applies within a single country. We did not find evidence of a resource curse, at the local government level, in Australia’s mining regions. Nevertheless, we note observations by many other researchers of negative social impacts on specific demographic sectors, localities, families of fly-in fly-out mining operations, and individuals. This contrast may be a scale issue, with the regional benefits of mineral wealth masking highly localised inequalities and disadvantage. We suggest that there is a need to better understand these impacts and, more importantly, the types of policy mechanisms government and industry can adopt to mitigate or avoid them.     

Modelling categorical data to identify factors influencing concern for the natural environment in Iran

Loglinear modelling techniques were used to identify the interactions and interrelationships underlying categorical environmental concern data collected from 9062 respondents in Iran. After fitting various loglinear models to the data, the most parsimonious model highlighted that a combination of interacting factors, namely educational attainment, age, gender, and residential location were responsible for influencing personal concern for the environment. Although high educational attainment had a close correspondence with high concern for the environment the loglinear results, when visualized with a geographical information system, demonstrated wide spatial variations in educational attainment and concern for the environment. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents were not highly educated, and were therefore not highly concerned for the environment. The finding that both rural and urban male and female respondents in the 15-24 years age category, with 10-12 years of education, had the strongest interaction with personal concern for the environment could be beneficial for policy planners to utilize education as the primary instrument to enhance environmental governance and prospects for sustainable development.     

Traffic noise and executive functioning in urban primary school children: The moderating role of gender

The objective of this study was to examine the relationships between noise and school children's executive functioning (EF). The study included 311 children (146 boys and 165 girls) aged 7–11 years, who lived in the center of Belgrade. Teachers rated children's EF on a standard scale evaluating their ability to work independently in a focused manner to achieve an end goal as well as children's ability to follow directions carefully. Residential noise exposure was estimated in three daytime intervals, one evening interval and two nighttime intervals in the middle of the streets where children lived. School noise exposure was measured on three different school days in front of children's schools. Socioeconomic status (mother's highest level of education and family income) was used as a statistical control. There were no significant main effects of ambient noise levels on EF, however, a significant interaction indicated adverse noise impacts on boy's EF. We discuss possible reasons for male EF vulnerability to noise.     

Rural environmental attitudes

Two frequent beliefs about rural environmental attitudes are examined conceptually and empirically: (1) the common conception that rural environmental concerns are expressed predominantly by wealthy community newcomers; and (2) the related position that long-time rural residents are hostile to the environmental cause. We argue conceptually, through the use of a 2×2 community matrix, that environmental attitudes are equally likely to be expressed by what we term “upper middle income newcomers,” “lower middle income newcomers,” “upper middle income locals,” and “lower middle income locals.” Empirically, we find that although wealthy newcomers express the strongest environmental attitudes in the community, their concerns represent only a small percentage of rural environmental attitudes consisting of respondents who make less than $40,000 a year in household income are over 40 years of age, possess less than a college education, and work in a nonprofessional occupation. This new category expresses environmental concerns at least equal to the rest of the community on three of four measures of environmental attitudes. The findings provide insight into the widespread and cross-sectional nature of rural environmental concern. The implication is that environmental groups will find significant sources of political support in rural communities, provided they craft their environmental message in a language consistent with rural attitudes and values. Things are gettin' bad fast. Easterners and environmentalists comin' down here from the big cities are tryin' to turn our way of life completely upside down. A western US rancher quoted in Krakauer (1991)     

The fertility plateau in Costa Rica: a review of causes and remedies

Costa Rica achieved a substantial reduction in its overall fertility rate in a very short period of time. The halving of the fertility rate which occurred in less than ten years in Costa Rica transpired over the course of 100 years in France and 170 in Sweden. The level of contraceptive use in Costa Rica is twice that in other Central American nations. The authors summarize the recent demographic history of Costa Rica and review factors influencing its remarkable fertility decline. They then discuss possible explanations for the ensuing fertility plateau and conclude by suggesting strategies for affecting a further decrease in fertility rates. With regard to the reasons for the fertility plateau, cultural factors, socioeconomic factors, declining government commitment and family planning services, education, and the Church are considered. To reduce the level of fertility even further, the authors recommend that the government adopt a clear population policy which could serve as a basis for other changes such as increased support of family planning programs, improvements in the educational system, increased women's status and employment opportunities, and extensive education in schools and through the mass media on the socioeconomic and environmental effects of overpopulation. It is important to increase Costa Ricans' understanding of the negative impacts of continued population growth and the role of individual family planning decisions in that growth.     

Environmental impacts of modern agricultural technology diffusion in Bangladesh: an analysis of farmers' perceptions and their determinants

Farmers' perception of the environmental impacts of modern agricultural technology diffusion and factors determining such awareness were examined using survey data from 21 villages in three agro-ecological regions of Bangladesh. Results reveal that farmers are well aware of the adverse environmental impacts of modern agricultural technology, although their awareness remains confined within visible impacts such as soil fertility, fish catches, and health effects. Their perception of intangible impacts such as, toxicity in water and soils is weak. Level and duration of modern agricultural technology adoption directly influence awareness of its adverse effects. Education and extension contacts also play an important role in raising awareness. Awareness is higher among farmers in developed regions, fertile locations and those with access to off-farm income sources. Promotion of education and strengthening extension services will boost farmers' environmental awareness. Infrastructure development and measures to replenish depleting soil fertility will also play a positive role in raising awareness.     

Development and Climate Change: A Mainstreaming Approach for Assessing Economic,Social, and Environmental Impacts of Adaptation Measures

The paper introduces the so-called climate change mainstreaming approach, where vulnerability and adaptation measures are assessed in the context of general development policy objectives. The approach is based on the application of a limited set of indicators. These indicators are selected as representatives of focal development policy objectives, and a stepwise approach for addressing climate change impacts, development linkages, and the economic, social and environmental dimensions related to vulnerability and adaptation are introduced. Within this context it is illustrated using three case studies how development policy indicators in practice can be used to assess climate change impacts and adaptation measures based on three case studies, namely a road project in flood prone areas of Mozambique, rainwater harvesting in the agricultural sector in Tanzania and malaria protection in Tanzania. The conclusions of the paper confirm that climate risks can be reduced at relatively low costs, but the uncertainty is still remaining about some of the wider development impacts of implementing climate change adaptation measures.     

Impact of Demographic Trends on Future Development Patterns and the Loss of Open Space in the California Mojave Desert

During the post-World War II era, the Mojave Desert Region of San Bernardino County, California, has experienced rapid levels of population growth. Over the past several decades, growth has accelerated, accompanied by significant shifts in ethnic composition, most notably from predominantly White non-Hispanic to Hispanic. This study explores the impacts of changing ethnicity on future development and the loss of open space by modeling ethnic propensities regarding family size and settlement preferences reflected by U.S. Census Bureau data. Demographic trends and land conversion data were obtained for seven Mojave Desert communities for the period between 1990 and 2001. Using a spatially explicit, logistic regression-based urban growth model, these data and trends were used to project community-specific future growth patterns from 2000 to 2020 under three future settlement scenarios: (1) an “historic” scenario reported in earlier research that uses a Mojave-wide average settlement density of 3.76 persons/ha; (2) an “existing” scenario based on community-specific settlement densities as of 2001; and (3) a “demographic futures” scenario based on community-specific settlement densities that explicitly model the Region’s changing ethnicity. Results found that under the demographic futures scenario, by 2020 roughly 53% of within-community open space would remain, under the existing scenario only 40% would remain, and under the historic scenario model the communities would have what amounts to a deficit of open space. Differences in the loss of open space across the scenarios demonstrate the importance of considering demographic trends that are reflective of the residential needs and preferences of projected future populations.     

Clean energy,clean water,and quality education: Prospects of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Sri Lanka

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 targets universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services by 2030. Modern or clean energy is perceived to be the golden thread that connects economic growth, human development, and environmental sustainability. However, one third of the world's population still uses solid fuels for cooking, endangering human health, and the environment. This paper, therefore, analyses demographic, socio-economic, and housing characteristics that affect the fuel choice for cooking. Further, it identifies how SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 6 (clean water) create synergies with SDG 7 (clean energy). The data are obtained from the four waves of the Sri Lankan Households Income and Expenditure Survey, covering more than 79,000 households. The random-effects panel multinomial logit results reveal that household income, wealth, marital status and education of the head, age and education of the spouse, household size, number of children, housing characteristics, and residential sector are vital in selecting clean fuel for cooking. Furthermore, advanced sustainability analysis shows SDG 4 and 6 have a strong synergistic effect on SDG 7. Policymakers can use the findings to prioritise educational, water, and sanitation programmes in national policies aimed at enhancing the use of clean cooking fuel and technologies to meet SDG 7 by 2030.     

The Relationship Between Environmental Concern and Acceptability of Environmental Impacts among Visitors to Two U.S. National Park Settings

This study examined the relationship between environmental concern and ratings of acceptability of environmental impacts among visitors at two national park settings. Based on the concept of a social ecological paradigm shift, it was hypothesized that individuals with greater levels of environmental concern are less accepting of environmental impacts in national parks than individuals with lesser degrees of concern. Sample data came from Cape Lookout National Seashore (N=392) and Moores Creek National Battlefield (N=236), two national park units in the south-eastern U.S.A. Environmental concern was measured by the New Ecological Paradigm scale. Acceptability was measured by visitor responses to 25 items covering different types of environmental park impacts. Analysis of variance and Tukey's means comparison procedure were used to test for differences between groups defined by levels of environmental concern on impact acceptability. Significant relationships were found between environmental concern and 15 of the 25 specific impacts in the Cape Lookout sample and 13 significant relationships were found in the Moores Creek sample. However, the relationships between environmental concern and acceptability varied somewhat across the two samples. These findings suggested that individuals with greater environmental concern were less accepting (or tolerant) of certain types of park impacts, while individuals with lesser degrees of environmental concern were more accepting of certain park impacts. Differences across the study settings were attributed to the different orientations of park visitors between the two national park units and recency effects. While the data reported are preliminary, they should be informative for park management purposes, particularly in the determination of standards for park impacts.     

消费价值差对绿色消费行为意向的影响

文章基于文献分析,提出了消费价值差模型,并以此结合量表和结构方程模型来检验消费价值差对消费者绿色商品的消费意向与市场需求的影响。研究结果说明,消费价值差越大,绿色消费行为意向和市场需求程度越低,其中效用价值差与环境价值差的反向影响最大。鉴于上述结论,政府及企业在制定相关政策及设计推广绿色商品时,应重视消费者的认知和情感需求,并针对不同群体开展具有差异性的环保宣教工作。     

Reexamining the relations between socio-demographic characteristics and individual environmental concern: Evidence from Shanghai data

This study reexamines the influence of socio-demographic characteristics on individual environmental concern by applying a pooled sample of 1200 individuals in Shanghai, China. Previous studies, which made efforts to explain environmental concern as a function of social structure, suggest that there are traditionally five observations (the age, gender, social class, residence, and political orientation effects) for the relations between socio-demographic characteristics and individual environmental concerns. In this study, we first conduct a factor analysis to a group of 11 environmental concern measures and then use the resulting factors to test three observations (the age, gender, and social class effects) by applying a seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) model. As a result, high household income and high education level have reacted positively to environmental concern as expected. However, we find that in contrast to most of the previous studies, age has shown positive reaction to individual environmental concern, implying that the older generation is more concerned about the environment than the younger population. In addition, the SUR results indicate that women in Shanghai seem less concerned about the environment than men. Other socio-demographic characteristics such as employment status and household size are found to be almost irrelevant to environmental concern.     

Green identity,green living? The role of pro-environmental self-identity in determining consistency across diverse pro-environmental behaviours

Policy-makers are interested in cost-effective and socially acceptable ways of encouraging the public to adopt more environmentally-friendly lifestyles. One area which UK policy-makers are focussing on is ‘catalyst behaviour’, the notion that taking-up a new behaviour (such as recycling) may cause people to adopt other pro-environmental behaviours. Yet, evidence for such ‘spill-over’ effects is so far limited, and it is unclear when and how cross-situational motivations (e.g., pro-environmental identity) may predict behaviour and when contextual factors are more important. We report on a postal survey (N = 551) of pro-environmental behaviours amongst the UK public. We assess the influence of pro-environmental self-identify on consistency across a range of behaviours. Pro-environmental values, perceived behavioural control, subjective norm, attitudes, and demographic factors were also measured. Findings show self-identity to be a significant behavioural determinant over and above theory of planned behaviour variables for carbon offsetting behaviour. However, pro-environmental self-identity was only a significant predictor for certain other pro-environmental behaviours; background variables were also important predictors. Limitations of the study, and implications for theory and policy, are discussed.     

Adaptation in situ or retreat? A multivariate approach to explore the factors that guide the peoples' preference against the impacts of sea level rise in coastal Bangladesh

This paper is aimed to identify the factors that influence peoples' preference for adaptation against the impacts of sea level rise (SLR). A total of 285 respondents from three coastal villages in Bangladesh are randomly interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. First, employing the principal component analysis various factors that influence adaptation preferences of people are identified. These factors are related to “demographic and social aspects”, “wealth and economic standing”, “past coping and adaptive behaviour”, “climate knowledge and information” and “spatial aspect” of life. What is common in these factors is their ability to influence peoples' vulnerability. Finally, the binomial logistic regression model is employed to compute the explanatory power of these factors to predict the respondents' preference for adaptation in situ over retreat or vice versa. Model findings are robust for two scenarios of SLR, i.e. 2050–2075 (LR χ ²?=?133.65, pseudo-R ²?=?0.53, p?<?0.001) and 2080–2100 (LR χ ²?=?282.61, pseudo-R ²?=?0.85, p?<?0.001). Therefore, it is concluded that to avoid relocation of substantial number of people initiative for encouraging adaptation in situ must be taken along side establishment of safe shelter, community radio service and campaign for raising climate awareness.