The environmental state largely depends on the environmental culture and consciousness of the population. The study of these qualities among the representatives of the younger generation is of particular interest: this has determined the relevance of the research problem. The purpose of the research is to compare the attitude towards pressing environmental issues among modern 16-year-olds and their peers interviewed 20 years ago, and to analyze the causes of changes that have occurred in the eco-consciousness and behavior of the younger generation during this period. The research lies in the following: the performance of 16-year-old teenagers’ concerns about serious environmental problems and their environmental behavior is studied for the first time in two decades; the causes of changes (decreased attention of the state and the society to environmental issues; the school course “Environment” is no longer mandatory; the media do not pay attention to the issue of sustainable development) are analyzed. The study applies the method of questionnaires. In 1996, the survey was conducted in three, and in 2017 – in four Russian regions. The study shows that modern 16-year-olds, unlike their peers from the 1990s, less often note that people litter in the streets and in the countryside, throwing wrappers and other wastes (which indicates that the eco-culture has increased); however, their participation in environmental movements and organizations, as before, remains at an extremely low level. According to the data, despite the deepening environmental crisis, the share of adolescents expressing serious concern about important environmental problems has decreased over 20 years. In the light of the above, it is of great importance to educate the public on human ecology and develop school education on environment and sustainable development, whose objectives include building the younger generation that would understand the need to address environmental problems and reduce anthropogenic load on the environment, as well as developing skills to improve the environment
Keywords
environment, questionnaire survey, adolescents, attitude performance, concern about environmental problems, eco-consciousness, eco-behavior, harm to health