10 January 2008

Youth And Environmental Radicalism

The Future Foundation, commissioned by the National Lottery, has come out with a study on young people and environmental issues. Here is the link to the report (PDF, 214KB).

Take note of charts 5, 6 and 10:

- 56% of women would buy environmentally-friendly cosmetics/toileteries, even if the cost was higher
- 33% would take direct action against polluters
- 13% would ban the use of planes for leisure flights
- 10% would completely ban cars
- 9% were willing to "take part in guerrilla activies carried out by environmental protest groups"

On the last bulletpoint, the report labels the most radical 20% of youth surveyed (who were three times as likely to support guerrilla activity) as "hardcore greens" -- and says that:
they may represent the early adopter wave of environmentalism and hold attitudes now that will be thought of as mainstream in the future ... even if this does not take place, and attitudes actually polarise, then we can assume that these young people are likely to be vocal supporters and will, therefore, have an effect on those around them and possibly upon the views of the country as a whole.

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