Abstract
An effective program of environmental education requires the identification of the knowledge that must be imparted. This paper compares the effects of human-environment system knowledge (i.e., knowledge related to environmental problems caused by humans) and environmental action knowledge (i.e., knowledge of possible courses of action to reduce human impact on the environment) on pro-environmental behavior. Environmental knowledge and pro-environmental behavior of 950 Chilean adults were assessed with a survey. Both types of knowledge were related to pro-environmental behavior (r = 0.25 and r = 0.22, respectively, p < 0.001). These results seem to contradict previous studies that found that system knowledge is not directly related to pro-environmental behavior. However, existing scales of environmental system knowledge are behavioral-distant due to their greater number of general geography knowledge items. In contrast, our human-environmental system knowledge scale focuses on understanding global environmental problems and, therefore, can be expected to relate more closely to pro-environmental behavior. To promote pro-environmental behavior, we suggest teaching more human-environment system knowledge and environmental action knowledge. Since different forms of environmental knowledge must work together in a convergent manner in order to foster pro-environmental behavior, the present study represents an important contribution by showing that greater human-environment system knowledge is correlated with pro-environmental behavior.
Highlights
The concept of sustainable development includes three interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars: economic development, social development and environmental protection [1]
“geography-environment system knowledge”, while knowledge related to environmental problems caused by humans will be referred to as “human-environment system knowledge”
This paper presents a scale of human-environment system knowledge and a scale for environmental action knowledge
Summary
The concept of sustainable development includes three interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars: economic development, social development and environmental protection [1]. Are problems of human behavior [2,3] For this reason, researchers in the social sciences and in education have sought for decades to understand the factors that lead people to move from environmental knowledge to pro-environmental attitudes and to pro-environmental behavior [4,5,6], which is a crucial part of sustainable behavior [7]. Many of the researchers believe that environmental education programs are necessary to increase environmental knowledge and, in turn, pro-environmental attitudes and behavior [8,9,10] This relationship is based on the assumption that people who are more knowledgeable about the environment should in turn be more aware of the environment and its problems and, be more motivated to act positively toward the environment [11,12]. Knowledge of environmental problems, their causes, and consequences has been shown to be an important determinant of peoples’
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