Demographic variables, cognitive and personality factors as predictors of environmentally responsible behaviour

[Extract] The natural global environment is undergoing changes in an ever escalating fashion as a consequence of an accumulation of human activities over the past 50 years. If such global changes remain unchecked and unmodified then environmental destruction seems an inevitable end. Some of the activities responsible for such degradation of the planet include the clearing of rainforests, the farming of marginal lands, the burning of fossil fuels and the manufacture and consumption of chemical products (Stern, 1992). McMichael (1993) lists six global environmental changes and how they are manifested along with their probable adverse effects upon human health. These include: 1) the enhanced green house effect which results in global warming and other climatic changes as well as a rise in sea level; 2) stratospheric ozone depletion which causes increased UV-B flux at Earth's surface; 3) acid aerosols from burning of sulphurous fossil fuels precipitated as acid rain; 4) land degradation such as intensive agriculture and overgrazing resulting in erosion, sterility, nutrient loss, salinity, desertification and depletion of underground aquifers; 5) loss of biodiversity manifested as destruction of habitat, loss of genetic diversity, and weakening of ecosystems; and 6) other effects of overpopUlation (particularly in poor countries) such as proliferation of crowded urban slums due to migration and high fertility (pp. 4-5). Advocating environmental changes at a global level renders the individual powerless to ameliorate localised environmental problems. By adopting the position that humans do possess some measure of control that can be implemented at the individual level to cope with global changes, environmental problems are perceived as less cataclysmic