Values and Environmental Knowledge of Student Participants of Climate Strikes: A Comparative Perspective between Brazil and Germany

Renan de Almeida Barbosa, Christoph Randler and José Vicente Lima Robaina
Additional contact information
Renan de Almeida Barbosa: Graduate Program in Science Education, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, R. Ramiro Barcelos, 2600-Adjacent Building, Porto Alegre BR-90035-003, Brazil
Christoph Randler: Department of Biology, University of Tuebingen, Morgenstelle 24, D-72076 Tuebingen, Germany
José Vicente Lima Robaina: Department of Teaching and Curriculum, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Paulo Gama 110, Porto Alegre BR-90040-001, Brazil

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-18

Abstract: Climate change and its consequences have called for actions to mitigate it, triggering society to act and speak out about sustainability policies. Movements like Fridays for Future (FFF) spread beyond the young people pressed for action to combat climate change. The present study aimed to (1) assess the environmental attitudes (EA) and knowledge (EK) of Brazilian and German students and (2) verify whether the frequency of participation in climate strikes changes according to these EA and EK. A total of 658 students participated in our study, 327 from Germany and 331 from Brazil (mean age 25.21 ± 7.91). We applied the Two Major Environmental Values (2-MEV) model and three-dimensional questionnaires to measure EA and EK, respectively. We applied a multivariate general linear model to assess the influence of the variables simultaneously. FFF participation is affected by EA, with strikers showing higher Preservation (PRE) and lower Utilization (UTL) scores; furthermore, our findings suggest that EK affects FFF participation, specifically system-related knowledge. The study adds to the increasing number of validations of the 2-MEV model in different languages and cultures and discusses the differences of EA and EK in student strikers and non-strikers between both countries.

Keywords: environmental attitudes; environmental knowledge; Fridays for Future; 2-MEV; collective action; climate change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/8010/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/8010/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:8010-:d:596415

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().