Abstract:

Climate change education is at the core of international efforts to empower people, youths in particular, to get involved in meaningful action against climate change. Universities have a critical role to play in raising awareness among students and support them in developing a comprehensive understanding and new competences to deal with climate change issues. Among other things they also need to inform and adapt their academic programs and curricula taking into consideration both the particularities of the different disciplinary fields and the students’ current levels of awareness, concern and understanding of climate change. However, few studies have been led on the topic and even less addressing university students’ samples with a non-science background.

The study reported here surveyed the levels of literacy and concern about climate change with the use of a questionnaire in 250 Greek undergraduate Psychology and Philosophy students.Their self-reported degree of knowledge and understandings about how the climate system works and climate change causes and solutions to it were also examined. Data analysis showed that most students agree that climate change is a real and human-induced problem and feel worried about it. However, they hold misconceptions and gaps regarding fundamental climate science facts and the role of different factors in causing and reducing global warming. Most students express the need for learning more about the causes, impacts and possible solutions to climate change and identify schools and Universities as having a role to play towards it. The study provides useful insights about the necessity, readiness and possible routes for incorporating climate change education into the academic curricula of non-science disciplinary degrees.

Keywords:

Climate change education, universities, students, climate literacy, concern, Greece, survey.