Department of Community Medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi
Global warming has emerged as one of the most important environmental issues ever to confront humanity having wide health & environmental implications. Awareness especially among children and youth is necessary to combat this challenge.
To study the perceptions of school students with regard to climate change, its potential health & environmental impacts and their behaviour towards tackling the issue.
This observational study was conducted in a government boys school in rural Delhi.
All students of classes 9th, 10th and 11th who were willing to participate were included in the study. A self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used and responses were evaluated.
Proportions, percentages and chi-square test.
In all, 290 students participated in the study. Majority (78.9%) had heard about global warming and most students correctly attributed it to decreasing green cover (57.6%) and rising pollution (53.1%). Majority were aware of the increased chances of epistaxis but only some knew of its other health implications. Majority (96.5%) felt the need to take action and suggested increasing the green cover as a possible solution (85.1%). However, there were gaps in knowledge of students and some misconceptions were also observed. Further, knowledge did not necessarily translate into students’ actions. Eleventh graders were better informed regarding global warming than lower two grades.
It is imperative to include the issue of global warming at all levels in school curriculum with emphasis on its health impacts and focusing on early years of schooling.
Global Warming, School Children, Perception, Health, Environment
