The environmental attitude of the urban population living in Macapá City, Brazilian Amazon region

Abstract

The human pressure on nature makes it imperative understanding how environmental issues can influence the world view of society. The aim of the current article is to measure the environmental attitude of the urban population living in the Macapa City, Amapa state, Brazilian Amazon region and to check whether this attitude is influenced by sociodemographic variables. We collected 387 full interviews conducted with individuals. In order to do so, we used the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) tool composed of 15 items distributed in five facets. Results showed positive correlations between the NEP scale and variables “education level” and “annual income,” as well as negative correlation between such scale and variable “age.” Urban childhood place recorded higher pro-ecological attitude rate than the rural one. All facets, except for limits, recorded moderate-to-high scores, thus indicating that the population has positive pro-environmental attitude profile, although it did not show much concern about the increased human population on Earth.