How Location Shapes Environmental Awareness Among Inhabitants of Eastern Poland – An Empirical Study

Abstract

Environmental awareness and its perception by humans is not an entirely clear issue, and the extent to which problems related to ecology and environmental protection are recognized raises many doubts. Our paper presents fi ndings obtained from the authors' own questionnaire made up of 46 statements carrying positive connotations. A fi ve-level Likert scale was applied to evaluate statements; respondents were asked to specify which level on the scale best corresponded with their view on each statement. In order to identify variables differentiating between specifi c groups of respondents, the data gathered from questionnaires was subject to a type of statistical analysis called discriminant function analysis. The aim of the study was to analyse links between the place of living and evaluation of the natural environment, certain factors affecting environmental awareness, and willingness to undertake environment-friendly actions by people living in Eastern Poland. The discriminant function analysis enabled categorization of opinions and attitudes of the respondents according to their place of living, indicating that their diversifi ed nature results from the place they inhabit. The analysis revealed that a grouping variable used to categorize places of living has statistically signifi cant discriminatory power. Inhabitants of large cities are interested in the subject of environmental protection, but they pay less attention to other aspects of "environmental awareness" than people living in small towns or in the countryside, which is largely attributable to their close contact with nature.

Climate Concern and Engagement: Large Face-to-Face and Online Polls by the Dutch non-profit Milieudefensie (post-print, published article)

“…When controlling for socio-economic variables, there were no rural-urban differences in China (Liu et al, 2020) and in Pakistan rural residents were more environmentally concerned than urban residents (Ergun et al, 2021). Moreover, rural residents in Poland (Piekarski et al, 2016) and Spain (Berenguer et al, 2005) reported concerns about local environmental problems like water shortages, while urban residents reported abstract environmental concerns like climate change. People living in rural areas may hold more anthropocentric environmental concerns (protect the environment to fulfill human needs), while urban residents may have more ecocentric concerns (protect the environment for its own sake) (Gagnon Thompson & Barton, 1994;Huddart-Kennedy et al, 2009;Rauwald & Moore, 2002).…”

Climate Concern and Engagement: Large Face-to-Face and Online Polls by the Dutch non-profit Milieudefensie

“…When controlling for socio-economic variables, there were no rural-urban differences in China (Liu et al, 2020) and in Pakistan rural residents were more environmentally concerned than urban residents (Ergun et al, 2021). Moreover, rural residents in Poland (Piekarski et al, 2016) and Spain (Berenguer et al, 2005) reported concerns about local environmental problems like water shortages, while urban residents reported abstract environmental concerns like climate change. People living in rural areas may hold more anthropocentric environmental concerns (protect the environment to fulfill human needs), while urban residents may have more ecocentric concerns (protect the environment for its own sake) (Gagnon Thompson & Barton, 1994; Huddart-Kennedy et al, 2009; Rauwald & Moore, 2002).…”

Improvement of the Soft Containers Use in Transportation of the Bulk Cargo

“…Further, the other factors, which appear during transportation, such as movement of transport means (wagons, containers, cargo etc. ), have to be considered, as well, [24][25]. That influences the running properties of a train-set, safety of transportation, dynamics of individual vehicles in a train-set, braking distances and other factors, which relate with the investigated issue [26][27][28][29].…”