Evaluating people's awareness about climate changes and environmental issues: A case study

Abstract

In the last decade, environmental issues have become a major topic of public opinion. People have begun to develop increasing environmental awareness and positive attitudes toward ecological matters. In particular, young people have begun to actively participate in environmental challenges by organizing green movements and engaging with policymakers. In this perspective, this study explores two main aspects: 1) awareness of the potential impacts of climate change and of environmental issues in each individual's daily life, and 2) the relationship between attitudes and pro-environmental actions. To this end, we analyse qualitative data obtained from a tailored online survey involving either students from a selected group of Italian High schools or volunteer respondents from the students' acquaintances. A total of 1834 responses are analysed using statistical tools to assess the multiple objectives of the survey. We distinguish between young and adult respondents and examine the relationships between awareness, personal experience, and risk perception in the two groups. We then propose a Multiple Correspondence Analysis that focuses on youth attitudes to examine the factors that influence their propensity to environmental issues and to determine the impact of global green movements on the onset or acceleration of their environmental awareness. Although the results show a more pessimistic view of the threats posed by environmental crises, our results highlight that younger generations have a deeper awareness of environmental conditions and are committed to environmental recovery by adopting “good ecological practices” and “active ecological behaviors."