Environmental attitudes : the Influence of culture

Abstract

Public awareness of environmental problems and the need to work towards their solution have been heightened at international conferences for over two decades.Knowledge of the range of environmental perspectives and attitudes, and understanding the reasons for them, are important requirements for decision-making when dealing with global environmental issues. It is argued that culture may impact on environmental views and attitudes may shape worldwide views that give rise to them.In this study, Australian, Maldivian and Indonesian trainee teacher communities served as sources of data to examine the influence of culture on environmental attitudes. The three communities examined viewed the term 'environment' differently, and that was one reason for different environmental attitudes being exhibited.It was also found that knowledge about environments was obtained from different sources, and some individuals and communities exhibited both pro-New Environmental Paradigm and pro-Human Exemptionalist Paradigm views simultaneously. This is inconsistent with a western view of environmentalism. The findings have implications for environmental education curricula and the negotiation of global environmental issues.

Date of Award	2002
Original language	English