The Ambivalent Green World: Green Values as an Aspect of the World-View of Adolescents

Abstract

Attitudes of youngsters with respect to nature and environmental policy were investigated together with a large sample of scales measuring socio-cultural and socio-economic attitudes. These ‘green values’ could be differentiated in a pessimistic view on recent technological developments, in which the danger for the natural environment tends to be stressed, and a positive attitude towards nature itself, that goes with valuing naturalistic and sober lifestyles as a possible solution to environmental pollution. This ‘green thinking’ is not easily explained as belonging to extreme left-wing politics - as is suggested by the adjective ‘green’ in extreme left-wing political parties in Western Europe. Especially its more romantic aspects seem to be more of a conventional kind. Lower educated pupils are far more supportive of this green romanticism than better educated pupils are, but this tends to be accompanied by traditional and intolerant attitudes. © 1994, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.