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Comparing climate change awareness, perceptions, and beliefs of college students in the United States and China

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  • Eric Jamelske
  • James Barrett
  • James Boulter

Abstract

Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus, climate change is a divisive national and international policy issue. There is still much public debate and uncertainty regarding the reality of climate change and the degree to which human activities are responsible. In terms of climate change issues, the US and China are of particular interest because they are disproportionately responsible for the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Using the data from a survey of US and Chinese college students, this paper compares climate change public opinion among young adults in these two countries. We found that US students much less likely to believe anthropogenic climate change is happening compared to Chinese students. US students were also less convinced of the consensus among climate scientists regarding human-induced climate change. In addition, US students rated the economy higher than the environment as a government priority, whereas Chinese students rated the economy and environment as equally important. In terms of familiarity with the current policy debate, Chinese students were more familiar with both national and international climate change policies. Although Chinese students favor joining an international agreement to address climate change more than US students, on average, there was a relatively strong support among students in both countries for joining such an agreement. However, within the US, there are significant differences in climate change public opinion between those with conservative and liberal political ideologies for almost every variable studied. These results are interesting and could have meaningful implications for both national and international climate change policies in the future. Copyright AESS 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Eric Jamelske & James Barrett & James Boulter, 2013. "Comparing climate change awareness, perceptions, and beliefs of college students in the United States and China," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 3(3), pages 269-278, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:3:y:2013:i:3:p:269-278
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-013-0144-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Stiglitz Joseph, 2006. "A New Agenda for Global Warming," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 3(7), pages 1-4, July.
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    1. Matthew Winden & Eric Jamelske & Endre Tvinnereim, 2018. "A contingent valuation study comparing citizen’s willingness-to-pay for climate change Mitigation in China and the United States," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 20(2), pages 451-475, April.
    2. Marijn H. C. Meijers & Christin Scholz & Ragnheiður “Heather” Torfadóttir & Anke Wonneberger & Marko Markov, 2022. "Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic to combat climate change: comparing drivers of individual action in global crises," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 12(2), pages 272-282, June.
    3. Eric Jamelske & James Boulter & Won Jang & James Barrett & Laurie Miller & Wen Han, 2015. "Examining differences in public opinion on climate change between college students in China and the USA," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(2), pages 87-98, June.
    4. Esther Sánchez-Almodóvar & Isabel María Gómez-Trigueros & Jorge Olcina-Cantos, 2022. "Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events in the Education of the Citizens of the Twenty-First Century: The Perception of Secondary Education Students," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, December.

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