Survey on environmental awareness of Shanghai college students.

Abstract

It is well known that environmental problems have become worldwide, which have great influences not only on economy, but also on human health. China’s environment situation has become a topic both domestically and internationally, especially during last decades of economic growth and rapid development. The environmental situation in China is described by the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP 2012) in its “2012 Report on the State of the Environment in China” as “severe.” Urban air pollution and water pollution are environmental issues with big problems in large parts of China; according to MEP’s report “the quality of national water environment allows no optimism,” only 23.9 % of Chinese cities meet the national air quality standard. Besides these examples of local environmental issues that affect people and their daily lives, China’s emission of green house gases and their contribution to global warming have got considerable international media attention. As a part of the environment, people’s behavior and environmental awareness will influence the surroundings in return. Although China is a socialist country, the general public has relativelymuch less direct influence on policy and the political developments of the state in this era (The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China 1982). Social scientists have done research on environmental governance in China (Carter and Mol 2007; Xue et al. 2007) that the general public elected their delegates of the People’s Congress to participate in the administration and discussion of the state affairs in China. In this way, the general public’s views on different policies and political matters could therefore possible have an indirect effect on the policies of the state. However, it is still important to learn about how the Chinese general public thinks about environmental issues as well as their opinions and views on different environmental problems and environmental-related concerns. Students, as a group, together with their views and opinions about environmental concerns and issues, are especially significant because students represent the future educated workforce, future developers of technology, energy systems, and probably policy. In addition, college students (carry the responsibility of sustainable development) can be the backbone of sustainable development strategy in the future, as they will be the policy makers, managers, and executives in economy, technology, and social aspects. Besides, after the enrollment of different jobs, their environmental awareness and behavior can influence more people. Obviously, college students’ environmental awareness is an important factor in environment protection. This report looks into the opinions and priorities of the students concerning environmental issues. Through a surveybased approach, this report will investigate and analyze the influences of various factors in correlation with the respondents’ environmental views, which may lead to a deeper understanding of these results. Only one report similar to this subject about the environmental awareness in China is found during the literature study: a survey from universities in Beijing from 1998 (Wong 2003). Considering the importance of environmental questions, the significance of students as a group in today’s society, and especially the significance role of college student in the future Chinese society, it is important to get a deeper understanding of their views and opinions on environmental issues and environmental concerns. Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues