Environmental Awareness Amongst Youth in Times of Climate Crisis
Environmental Awareness Amongst Youth in Times of Climate Crisis

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with the important issue of environmental awareness amongst youth in times of climate crisis. Environmental awareness has been measured basing on the currently dominant division into anthropocentrism and biocentrism, the main two positions on the place of man in nature, the value of nature, including its moral significance and the assessment of human impact on environmental safety. The results come from surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019 in Poland (in the city of Bydgoszcz) on high school students (approximately 18 years old). The research presents young people’s opinions on environmental protection, the role of man in relation to nature (identified as biocentric or anthropocentric), and the threats associated with the climate crisis. We also analyse how environmental awareness is influenced by the content of media messages. Our results show that the surveyed students declare biocentric/anti-anthropocentric beliefs more often than anthropocentrism, and this tendency was reinforced by the growing presence of discussions surrounding climate change and related threats in public discourse.

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