Measuring environmental attitudes and behaviors: a study of undergraduate students in Delhi

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Measuring environmental attitudes and behaviors: a study of undergraduate students in Delhi Franky Varah1 · Mirinchonme Mahongnao2 · Deep Jyoti Francis3 · Tuisem Shimrah4 Received: 6 September 2019 / Accepted: 25 April 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020

Abstract This paper uses  the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) and Environmentally Responsible Behavior Index (ERBI) to test the environmental attitudes and behaviors of students at the University of Delhi. Most of the students (both urban and rural areas) through selfreport perception support the model of NEP and ERBI. Some factors that influence their responsible attitudes and behaviors include high awareness level that acquired through education, economic and other channels (possibly print and social media). Our study found that students residing in rural areas are more likely to show favorable environmental attitudes than students in urban areas. The environmental attitudes construct through the NEP model were found to be strongly correlated with the behavior constructs of the ERBI model. Students taking up life science as a subject are more likely to show better attitudes toward the environment than the students studying physical science. Keywords  New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) · Environmentally Responsible Behavior Index (IRBI) · Environmental attitudes · Environmental behaviors students India

* Franky Varah [email protected] Mirinchonme Mahongnao [email protected] Deep Jyoti Francis [email protected] Tuisem Shimrah [email protected] 1

Department of Environmental Studies, Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences, New Delhi, Delhi, India

2

Centre for Studies in Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

3

Center for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

4

School of Environment Management, GGSIP University, New Delhi, India



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Natural Hazards

1 Introduction The major concern in today’s world communities is the ongoing and impending environmental catastrophe ahead in future. Some major environmental issues include pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss and depletion of natural resources. The environmental issues in India can broadly be attributed to rapid urbanization and industrialization, commercialization, production of demand energy and the introduction of motorized vehicles (Chopra 2016). Because of the long-term adverse impacts on health and the environment, protecting environment is imperative. Human activities arising out of socio-economic and political actions are the major factors causing environmental problems in the contemporary world. The environmental degradation is occurring at a rapid pace in the world causing irreversible loss to flora and fauna, aquatic resources and land resources. The world communities are making an effort to reduce the current environmental degradation; however, the complexity of the existing social and political systems coupled with thrive for the cumulative economic growth remains an impedi