Environmental education plays a significant role in improving environmental knowledge and shaping the eco-friendly lifestyles of young people. Young people’s daily actions and habits will determine the future of the Earth as a planet. The literature regarding youths’ environmental knowledge, climate change awareness, environmental attitude, and their impact on pro-environmental intentions and sustainable household consumption practices is very scarce. Therefore, this study explored the relationship between environmental knowledge, climate change awareness, environmental attitude, and the pro-environmental intentions of university students. The study also assessed the moderating effect of environmental education on pro-environmental behavior and sustainable household consumption practices, providing a comparative analysis of students with and without environmental education, which is unique in the literature. The data were collected from 2137 Chinese university students selected through a purposive and random sampling method through survey questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) were used to analyze the collected data. The findings revealed that environmental knowledge, climate change awareness, and environmental attitudes of the students positively affected their pro-environmental intentions. Moreover, pro-environmental intentions also positively affected the adoption of sustainable practices. The result also showed that the impact of pro-environmental intentions on sustainable consumption practices was greater for those whose education included environmental courses than for those whose education did not. Therefore, it is suggested that environment-related courses be incorporated into the study plans of each discipline as a compulsory subject for promoting green intentions and shaping eco-friendly lifestyles for environmental sustainability.

Introduction: The world is facing a formidable challenge to prevent the COVID-19 global outbreak, and health care systems are under pressure globally. The governments alone cannot prevent the spread of this pandemic without creating a sensitive public opinion and cooperation. Therefore, this study analyzed the knowledge, behavior, and precautionary measures taken by the general public to protect themselves from COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: For this purpose, snowball sampling technique was used to collect data from 401 respondents through an online survey in the Punjab province of Pakistan. A Multivariate Probit Model was used to determine the factors affecting the choice of precautionary measures to avoid COVID-19 infection. Results: Majority of the respondents (58.1%) belonged to urban areas in this study. The urban respondents had higher knowledge about Coronavirus disease as compared to rural respondents. Similarly, the hygienic behavior of urban respondents was better than rural respondents. But unavailability of hygienic material (mask and hand sanitizer) was the main problem faced by the general public. Public transportation was considered the most risk-prone place to COVID-19 by the respondents. Majority of the respondents perceived medium to highest risk from COVID-19, and it was found one of the most influential factors affecting the adoption of precautionary measures along with knowledge of this pandemic. Conclusions: Government needs to start a comprehensive awareness campaign on social media along with the mainstream media create awareness about the importance of social distancing, washing hands and wearing masks among the general public to enhance knowledge and improve the behavior of the general public about COVID-19.

Governments around the globe are trying to find sustainable solutions for lessening pressure on natural resources and reducing carbon emissions. Daily household consumption of food, energy, and water has an impact on stocks of natural resources, environmental quality, and climate change. Households have significant potential for increasing conservation actions for efficient use of natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions. Households could contribute to a clean and healthy environment by adopting sustainable household practices through lower per capita consumption and carbon emissions. This study explored the role of different sustainable household consumption practices in promoting a clean environment as well as the factors affecting the adoption of these practices in Pakistan. Factor analysis and an ordered probit model were used to analyze the data from 1424 participants chosen through a multistage random sampling technique. The factor analysis identified 35 sustainable household practices for sustainable consumption. These 35 practices were grouped into the underlying factors of “Food” (14 items), “Energy” (12 items), and “Water” (9 items). The results from the econometric model showed a significant relationship between gender, education, residential area, family size, and income and the adoption of sustainable household consumption practices. Statistically, higher levels of reported sustainable consumption practices were apparent among females, households living in urban areas, more educated people, individuals of large family sizes, and more affluent households. Therefore, public policies for taking care of the environment need to put households at the center while at the same time promoting mass uptake of sustainable consumption practices related to food, energy, and water. In addition, the sector-specific policies also need to be augmented through focus on household-level consumption and production dynamics for achieving the UN’s SDGs.

Goat farming has traditionally been a major livelihood for many rural families in the mountainous and uphill areas of the Eastern Mediterranean region of Turkey. In recent years, the increased demand for goat products raised the issue of developing a sustainable goat sector in the region. The primary purpose of this study was to determine best management practices and innovations in goat farming and their adoption levels in the Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey. For this purpose, 140 goat farmers were surveyed and their socioeconomic characteristics, management practices, problems encountered, levels of applying innovations and best management practices, as well as factors influencing their adoption were investigated. Results of the study revealed that goat farmers face problems with expensive feeds, low governmental subsidies, and cheap prices for goat products. Adoption level of innovations and best management practices were found quite low and it was influenced by farmers’ experience, income, travels, and contacts with extension service and private veterinarians. Key words: Adoption, goat farming, management practices, rural development, Turkey.

Bitkisel üretimde tarımsal mücadele ilaçlarının kullanımı verim ve kalite üzerinde olumlu etkilere sahipken, insan ve çevre sağlığına karşı ise olumsuz etkilere sahiptir. Tarımsal mücadelede kimyasal ilaçların yoğun ve bilinçsiz olarak kullanılması ve çevre dostu tarımsal mücadele yöntemlerinin kullanılmaması ile çevre kirlenmektedir. Bu durum uzun vadede biyo-çeşitliliğin azalması ve doğal dengenin bozulması gibi sorunlara neden olmaktadır. Tarımsal üretimde üreticilerin hastalık, zararlı ve yabancı otlar ile mücadele yöntemlerini etkili şekilde uygulayamamaları, gereksiz ve yanlış dozlarda ilaç kullanımının yaygın olması ve kimyasal mücadele dışında kalan yöntemlerin tercih edilmemesi gibi sorunlar bu araştırmanın önemini ortaya koymaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı Samsun ili Çarşamba İlçesinde bitkisel üretim yapan üreticilerin tarımsal mücadele ilaçları kullanımında çevreye karşı tutum ve davranışlarını incelemektir. Bu amaçlar doğrultusunda Samsun İli Çarşamba İlçesinde tabakalı oransal örnekleme yöntemi ile belirlenen 112 çiftçi ile anket çalışması yapılmıştır. Araştırma bulgularına göre bölgede çiftçilerin büyük çoğunluğu kimyasal mücadele yöntemlerini kullanırken diğer yöntemleri pek tercih etmemektedir. Çiftçiler ilaçların etki derecesini orta düzeyde bulurken ilaç fiyatlarını yüksek bulmaktadır. Yörede aşırı ilaçlamanın çevreyi olumsuz etkilediği yönünde bir algı varken, biyolojik mücadele yöntemleri yeterince bilinmemektedir. Çiftçilerin tarımsal ilaçları daha bilinçli bir şekilde kullanmaları ve kimyasal mücadele dışındaki yöntemleri uygulamaları için çeşitli araştırma, eğitim ve yayım çalışmaları yapılmalıdır.