Eco-environmental beliefs in childhood: cultural study

Abstract

This paper addresses the beliefs constructed in childhood about some ecological-environmental issues, in particular those related to lifestyle and the conception of the needs linked to keeping these. We asked some 9 and 11 year-old Colombian, Spanish and English school children to imagine a desert island in which they were supposed to go to live. This knowledge about their possibilities/abilities when facing an unknown medium, and using all kind of resources they choose to have, will provide a good opportunity to determine if the ecological-environmental education they receive follows the no depredation guidelines. After analysing the responses on what they would take and what would they do in the island, we have found a naïve ethnocentric conception following the technological developments of Western culture.