Students’ Perception of Global Warming on the Maltese Islands

Abstract

In Malta, global warming (GW) can be perceived negatively or positively: negatively due to the effects caused by the rise in temperature, desertification effects, rise in illnesses, and others and positively due to the fact that people might invest in GW mitigation solutions, such as the selling of solar water panels and solar water heaters, developing new ways to mitigate GW, devising plans how to live comfortably even under a rise in temperatures, such as reaching a net carbon zero emission from households, and others. This paper focuses on how the students at MCAST perceive GW in three different concepts, namely, meanings and related concepts, causes and effect of GW, and actions that can be taken to mitigate GW. The research aims to verify by means of enquiring data, through a closed questionnaire with a set of Likert-scale variables (dependent and independent) using a quantitative approach, to find out if there is a correlation between knowledge gathered through the course of study and the contribution that the students can input in mitigating GW effects. The analysis showed that it is possible to represent all variables by five factors and, by using regression analysis, it was possible to test the hypothesis. Results show that there is a strong correlation between knowledge gathered through the course of study and contributing to mitigate GW. The knowledge contribution was mainly characterized by a strong belief that actions towards mitigating GW exists, and can be studied and implemented. Government initiatives and decisions taken towards mitigating GW contribute slightly to this correlation. The relationship is 100% there since the chance that this answer happened by chance is practically zero. All of this indicates that the studies being carried at MCAST are reflecting in the students’ attitude towards greener initiatives.