Secondary student views of global warming: beliefs actions and willingness to act

NSW secondary students’ views (n=500) about how useful various specific actions might be at reducing global warming, their willingness to undertake the various actions, and the extent to which these two might be linked were determined using a constructed questionnaire. The degree to which students were willing to act was often greater or less than might be expected from the extent to which they believed particular proenvironmental actions to be useful. The strength of the relationships, for each action, between students’ willingness to act and their belief that an action would be effective were explored. This suggested a measure of the potential effectiveness of education about that action. Where this relationship was weak altering belief about the usefulness of the action might not be expected to produce major changes in behaviour. Where the relationship was stronger environmental education could well be effective, especially if a large proportion of the population are not already willing to undertake that action.