NEETF commissioned this survey on environmental attitudes and behaviors of disadvantaged youth in America to identify the critical gaps in environmental education so that our resources, among others, can be more effectively targeted to filling in those gaps.
Partnerships is what we are all about. We try to support projects that bring together different elements of the environmental education community. There is tremendous replication in this field, and reducing this redundancy is critical. This survey will help us reduce this replication by guiding us in targeting what we find.
We believe it is important to study students living in disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances due to their higher exposure to risks; a lesser number of opportunities to experience nature; and the plethora of other critical concerns in their lives relative to environmental issues. The results of this survey should open the gateway for private and public sectors to pull their forces together to fill the gaps in environmental education.
As we look toward the future of environmental protection, we know that command and control approaches have only a limited role. A better approach is to create an environmentally literate workforce and citizenry that will take personal and professional action to prevent pollution before it occurs. This research will put us on the road toward achieving environmental protection through action by each and every American.
Francis P. Pandolfi