Could organisms and ecosystems be used as motivators for behaviour to reduce global warming? The views of school students

Abstract

Global warming resulting in climate change is thought to be a serious threat to the environment and, consequently, to the world's social, political and financial stability. Therefore, there is a serious need to identify strategies that are effective in promoting behaviour change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One possibility is to raise awareness of the potential detrimental effects of global warming on biological organisms, since such effects are concrete and may be emotive. This study examines the beliefs of Turkish school students about the possible effects of global warming on the survival of a range of organisms and ecosystems and, separately, explores students’ views about the importance of the survival of those organisms and ecosystems. Of the items raised by the questionnaire, those perceived to be the most endangered by global warming were polar bears, and those thought to be the most worth conserving were rainforests. In addition, Cluster Analysis revealed four subgroups of students: ‘more valuing extinctionalists’ (students who valued organisms or ecosystems more highly, and thought them vulnerable to global warming), ‘less valuing extinctionalists’, ‘more valuing non-extinctionalists’ and ‘less valuing non-extinctionalists’. Thus, although students hold a variety of pre-existing views, convincing more students of the importance of maintaining biodiversity, and increasing their awareness of the potential detrimental effects of global warming on various organisms and ecosystems may be one way of encouraging students to undertake actions to reduce global warming.