Are We Ready for a Sustainable Development? A Survey among Young Geoscientists in Italy

Abstract

The United Nations 2030 Agenda is a plan designed to encourage prosperity that is respectful of the planet and its inhabitants. The Agenda will help introduce the concept of education for sustainability (EfS) to a wider population in order to promote inter- and trans-disciplinary knowledge about sustainability. Connecting Earth Sciences (ES) with sustainability allows us to deal with the ethical dimensions and the social implications of this field. The belief is that improving the delivery of knowledge around sustainability issues will make visible the potential of ES education as a key component of EfS. The aim of this paper is to understand whether the young Italian ES community has sufficient knowledge of and a shared interest in, sustainability. The conviction is that awareness of these topics among the younger generations is fundamental to building a new pedagogical paradigm. This study shows the results of a survey taken by participants of BeGeo 2021, the Italian national congress dedicated to young geoscientists, held in Napoli in October 2021. The majority of respondents had limited knowledge about sustainability, and only a few had attended academic activities that included these topics. Nonetheless, the importance of sustainability is well recognized and there is a great need to increase the number of activities connected to EfS.

For a Sustainable Future: A Survey about the 2030 Agenda among the Italian Geosciences Community

“…In our previous paper [26], illustrating the results of an investigation conducted among young Italian geoscientists on the links between ES and the UN 2030 Agenda, we found that the word "sustainability" is not prominent in the curricula of Italian Earth Sciences departments and that it is conceivable that most students would graduate without having taken a subject course focused specifically on how geosciences can tackle the SDGs and contribute to their fulfilment. Therefore, since it is our belief that the primary objective of the ES community is to put its very important and unique contributions on the floor of the public discussion via an educational program [27], it is crucial to investigate the role of Italian departments in disseminating sustainability education related to geoscience issues.…”

“…The annual congress of SGI-SIMP is by far the best occasion to gather together the majority of professionals, researchers, and teachers in geosciences in Italy. With this second questionnaire, the intention was to deepen the analysis about the entanglements between ES and the sustainable development issues, broadening the sample and including not only the young geoscientists [26], but the entire Italian geocommunity. On this topic, the first notable aspect is that, in the face of a much higher number of participants (n = 1086) than in the congress covered by the analysis in our previous article (around 400), the number of answers received was more than the double (110 in the first questionnaire, 229 in the second) but the age ranges most represented were still under 30 (32%) and 31-40 (25.9%).…”

“…In our previous paper, we noticed that only five of seventeen SDGs were selected by at least half of the respondents as those for which geoscience research and practice can be helpful, while just a small fraction of the answers addressed some fundamental issues such as the defeat of hunger, the reduction in poverty or gender inequalities, and the promotion of peace or social justice [26]. The answers given to question 16 lead us to the same results: once again five goals were selected by more than half of the respondents, and four of the five were the same, i.e., affordable and clean energy (goal 7), climate action (goal 13), life on land (goal 15), and clean water and sanitation (goal 6).…”

“…As in the previous study [26], we first created a simple-to-use survey via Google forms, composed of three main parts: (I) personal information; (II) geology and sustainable development; and (III) education for sustainability; as a conclusion, we gave the possibility of leaving a free commentary (Table 1).…”

“…In continuation with our previous study [26], this section aims to highlight not only the knowledge of the respondents about the 2030 Agenda and the 17 SGDs connected to geosciences, but also their interests in the sustainability issues in their disciplines and the possible developments of related educational and professional pathways. To do this, we inserted into the questionnaire three items: n.7 (Have you heard of the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals yet?…”