This study used Witte's extended parallel process model to examine the relationships between the use of fear appeals and college students' attitudes and behavioral intentions toward global warming. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was adopted. Three hundred forty-one college students from six communication courses at two…

Significant life experience research suggests that the presence of role models, time outdoors, and nature-related media foster pro-environmental behavior, but most research is qualitative. Based on a random sample of middle school students in North Carolina, USA, we found limited positive associations between presence of a role model and time…

This study at a public high school in the Northeastern United States explores how students' environmental identities are affected by various activities in an Environmental Science course. Data was collected as part of an ethnographic study involving an Environmental Science teacher and her tenth-twelfth grade students. The results focus on…

Peer education is an understudied yet valuable strategy for sustainability educators in shifting youth to take action for sustainability. This case study conceptualizes the change process in facilitating youth to take sustainability actions, and explores the benefits, dynamics, and challenges of peer education as a strategy in facilitating change.…

Zoos embrace docents/volunteers as a means of interpreting the threats to wildlife and biodiversity to visitors. To accomplish this, zoos provide docents' education, training, and work experience. Docents themselves also engage in solitary and social wildlife experiences outside of their volunteer obligations. This study examined what…

A structured questionnaire was administered to assess Greek pre-service primary teachers' knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported behavior toward marine pollution issues. Exploratory factor analysis revealed several factors, all demonstrating adequate internal consistency, and showed that pre-service teachers demonstrated a moderate level of…

What promotes action competence for sustainability? This question is phenomenologically explored through researching in depth the life stories of three Swedish young adults who for several years have limited their own ecological footprints, led environmental initiatives of activist character, engaged in ecosystem protection, and participated in…

This article presents data from a mixed-methods study that collected data through surveys (n = 656), interviews (n = 15), and discussion groups (n = 75) to explore the use of social strategies such as education and outreach by non-governmental organizations and government agencies to reach outcomes related to biodiversity conservation and resource…

One of the roles of the modern zoo is to provide environmental education. Zoo visitation comprises primarily family groups seeking to spend time together. There is potential for tension between message and audience expectation as zoos seek to raise awareness of the effects of irresponsible human behavior on the environment. This may unsettle…

How we communicate the dangers of climate change may influence attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Here we test two pairs of positive and negative framing statements with North American citizen scientists interested in gardening and birdwatching. Mentioning dangers for humans did not increase participants' interest in taking personal action on…

The paper considers the connections between the environmental crisis and patterns of consumption in the Western, and Westernised, worlds. These patterns are named as "malconsumption", a concept which is defined and then discussed in terms of its importance to the work of environmental educators. Malconsumption as a means of…

Implementing environmental activism at school can be socially risky business. This paper explores the narratives of three women who undertook award winning environmental projects in two regional Australian schools. Tara (student, age 15) and Andrea (principal, age 42) document the complex and courageous social negotiations they were forced to…

There is a paucity of research in Australia on the nature of young people's attitudes, knowledge and actions. This paper reports on the findings from one such study of Australian high school students. The research was based on a survey of 5,688 students form Melbourne and Brisbane. These young people identified protection of the environment…

One thing about which there is widespread consensus is that the earth and its inhabitants are in social and environmental peril. This is where the consensus ends, however, for there is equally widespread disagreement as to the nature and causes of the problems (more social or more environmental), the severity of the problems (for whom are they…

In this paper John Huckle reflects on the outlook of environmental education based on conferences in 1972 and 1992 regarding the lack of sustainable development being realized. Huckle points "education for sustainability" along a pathway provided by critical theory and pedagogy and uses theory to examine the nature of ecological crisis,…