Exploring positive relationships between environmental attitudes and views of the future

The impacts for many environmental issues, most prominently climate change, will be felt most strongly in the future. A feeling of powerlessness, especially about the future of the environment, can lead to inaction. However, according to prior research, students may have difficulty imagining the future. In fact, the researchers in this study hypothesize that our ability to influence the future of the environment may depend on our vision for the future. This study applies these ideas about future thinking to undergraduate students and explores relationships between future thinking and current environmental attitudes. More specifically, the research looks at the ways students are optimistic or pessimistic and why, as well as how technology plays a role in their visions for the future.

This research took place at a university in Taiwan. The researchers recruited 96 volunteers to participate from a general science course for undergraduates. The survey consisted of a draw-and-explain section to gather data about the students' future visions and a questionnaire to learn about students' environmental attitudes. The draw-and-explain section asked the students to consider their preferred future for the environment in 20 years. These data were analyzed by putting components that the students included into pre-identified categories. Participants also answered two short questions to supplement the drawing. The questionnaire section asked about participants' affect and intended behavior towards the environment. Prevalent themes students' future vision drawings were compared to their scores on the questionnaire to determine whether the two were related.

The findings suggest that respondents with a desirable vision of the future were more optimistic the future of the environment. The drawings indicated the students' future visions included green technology, clean air and water, forests/mountains/lakes, closer relationships and proximity to nature, wildlife, and accessible parks and green spaces. Environmental quality was a frequently identified theme. Roughly half of the students said their preferred future was likely or very likely to happen and around half said it was unlikely or very unlikely. On average, the respondents had a slightly positive view of technology's role in influencing the future of the environment. Technology was often cited as either a large factor driving the good parts of their future vision or driving the negative aspects. The authors caution, though, against some views of technology, as these views can be uncritical, simplified, and passive. In other words, people may think that technology will solve everything without any other work and can cause people to become overly positive about new technologies and complacent about environmental issues.

When analyzing relationships between future visions and current environmental attitudes, the researchers found three trends. First, students who held beliefs that their preferred environment was likely to happen felt positively about technology's role in that future. Secondly, students who held such positive views on technology also were likely to be less concerned about the environment. Finally, students showing more concern for the environment typically were more likely to act in favor of the environment.

This study involved a relatively small number of students from a high-ranking university in Taiwan, so the results are likely not generalizable to student populations in other locations. The authors acknowledge that there many reasons may exist to explain why a student might feel optimistic about the environment, including denial or naïveté.

The researchers recommend integrating consideration of future perspectives into sustainability and environmental education. They suggest this will help participants become better critical thinkers and give them the ability to make more informed decisions that may impact the future environment. In addition, the authors argue for integrating critical thinking surrounding values. The researchers argue that this assists students when evaluating different ideas and reasoning through complex issues. Furthermore, they believe that students will also develop their own values as they relate to the environment. The researchers also recommend supporting students and empowering them to think critically about the issues and act in pro-environmental ways.