What drives pro-environmental activism of young people? A survey study on the Fridays For Future movement

Wallis, Hannah; Loy, Laura S.

doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101581

Cited by 175 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Experimental studies examining the effectiveness of communication messages to foster climate action for distinct age cohorts would be valuable. Previous research has also investigated drives of pro-environmental activism in young people and how family dynamics influence pro-environmental tendencies [43][44][45][46] . It would be interesting to examine such processes regarding climate change beliefs; for example, whether children are more influential in sparking climate action in their parents, whether parents are the catalyst of climate action in their children, or whether the influence process is bi-directional.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ten-year panel data confirm generation gap but climate beliefs increase at similar rates across ages

et al. 2021

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Accumulating evidence indicates that climate change awareness and concern has increased globally, but commentators suggest a climate change generation gap whereby younger people care more about climate change than older people. Here we use a decade of panel data from 56,513 New Zealanders to test whether belief that “Climate change is real” and “Climate change is caused by humans” increased over the 2009-2018 period; and whether changes are uniform across 12 five-year birth cohorts spanning those born from 1936 to 1995. Results confirm a generation gap in mean (intercept) climate change beliefs but not in over-time increase (slope). The generation gap occurs because older cohorts started from a lower initial belief level (circa 2009), but all age cohorts increased their belief level at a similar rate over the last decade; and these results were not qualified by respondents’ gender. The findings offer hope for collective action that bridges efforts across generations.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ten-year panel data confirm generation gap but climate beliefs increase at similar rates across ages

et al. 2021

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“…Namely, we did not measure perceptions of collective efficacy specifically related to the Fridays for Futures strikes, but measured collective efficacy related to climate change in general. A recent study on the Fridays for Future strikes in Germany also found collective efficacy not to be a significant predictor of participation in their linear model [ 20 ] (although the authors find collective efficacy to correlate with activism). Interestingly, the authors also assessed collective efficacy with only one item related to climate change in general and not specifically to the protests.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current study advances the literature on collective action and protest participation in several ways. First, it provides some of the first empirical evidence on the motives for participation in the Fridays for Future strikes, one of the largest environmental social movements to date (for other studies on the climate strikes see: [ 16 – 20 ]. Second, it adds to the current literature on climate protest participation due to its novel approach of investigating the drivers of both participation and non-participation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

To strike or not to strike? an investigation of the determinants of strike participation at the Fridays for Future climate strikes in Switzerland

2021

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The Fridays for Future strikes involve students striking for increased action on climate change, and this movement has spread to 185 countries and received widespread media attention. This exploratory study investigates motives for participating or not in the climate strikes and future participation among students in Switzerland. In a sample of N = 638 university students, we found that trust in climate scientists, low trust in governments, response efficacy, protest enjoyment and the perceived success of the strikes predicted participation. Contrary to statements in the public media but consistent with the literature, students who participated in the climate strikes reported consuming less meat, flying less and taking more steps to compensate the CO2 emissions from flights compared to students who did not participate. We discuss how the insights from this study help reveal the determinants of youth collective action on climate change.

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“…Accordingly, it is conceivable that airlines will be forced to change business models, in order to attract and keep these younger customers loyal. In fact, one could imagine a scenario in which one of the players (be it an existent or a new player) rushes towards this increasingly growing market of sustainability-aware individuals, driven by various social and personal drivers ( Wallis and Loy, 2021 ). And - despite all environmental considerations - these younger generations will have strong desires to travel after the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Section: Educational Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technological and educational challenges towards pandemic-resilient aviation

2021

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While COVID-19 has devastating effects on aviation, several recent studies have highlighted the potential of the pandemic-induced break for rethinking air transportation, hopefully orchestrating changes towards the construction of a more pandemic-resilient aviation system. Here, pandemic-resilient means that aviation stakeholders can sustain the impact of an epidemic or pandemic outbreak through a more informed reallocation of their resources and more collaborative decision making, while being able to minimize the impacts of external events. Our study contributes to the literature by discussing the challenges associated with technological innovation and education of aviation professionals, on the way towards pandemic-resilient aviation. We discuss issues surrounding technologies for smarter aircraft, smarter airports, and smarter airlines. While technology ensures long-term competitiveness and sustainability, an often-ignored source of challenges are human resources and education. COVID-19 has uncovered and magnified the effects of severe concerns with the current aviation education system, which need to be solved by extended skill sets, modern technology, and better career perspectives. Without properly addressing these technological and educational challenges, the aviation industry likely misses an distinct opportunity for restructuring towards pandemic-resilient aviation.

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What drives pro-environmental activism of young people? A survey study on the Fridays For Future movement

Cited by 175 publications

References 43 publications

Ten-year panel data confirm generation gap but climate beliefs increase at similar rates across ages

Ten-year panel data confirm generation gap but climate beliefs increase at similar rates across ages

To strike or not to strike? an investigation of the determinants of strike participation at the Fridays for Future climate strikes in Switzerland

Technological and educational challenges towards pandemic-resilient aviation

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