Save the Sea Turtles: A Qualitative Analysis of the Influential Factors in the Development of Environmental Concern for Sea Turtle Conservation

A tremendous urgency needs to be placed on understanding, preventing, and combating the slew of environmental issues presented in our global society. The reliance of unsustainable habits, formed by the use of non-renewable resources and an anthropocentric value system will inevitably lead the human race to destruction. In order to move towards a sustainable, equitable and bright future, it is essential to garner concern and ultimately activism for environmental issues. This Independent Study aims to understand the most influential factors in the development of environmental concern for sea turtle conservation. According to analyzed literature, knowledge, worldview, and education are influential in the development of environmental concern. I administered a survey, containing a link to a GoFundMe to evaluate the influence of stated significant factors on participants’ willingness to donate and their likelihood to actually donate to sea turtle conservation. Qualitative analysis of 104 participants responses was analyzed using COUNTIF function. Knowledge, education, and worldview were concluded to have little to no influence on the development of participant’s concern. Self-evaluated concern towards sea turtle conservation was determined to be the most influential factor in the development of concern. This study supports the conclusion that it is extremely difficult to understand what factors are most influential in the development of environmental concern. Further research should be conducted to more accurately determine the influence of emotion, upbringing, worldview, education, knowledge, and self-proclaimed concern on the development of environmental concern