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CHAPTER 4. PUBLIC AWARENESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

4.2. Environmental Public Awareness

Awareness shapes a hierarchy of values, and at the same time has an influence on the sense of responsibility for inappropriate choice of values and indifference towards wrongdoing.

Public awareness of the environment means the ability to emotionally understand the surrounding world, including the laws of the natural environment, sensitivity to all the changes occurring in the environment, understanding of cause-and-effect relationships between the quality of the environment and human behaviour, an understanding of how the environment works as a system, and a sense of responsibility for the common heritage of the Earth, such as natural resources - with the aim of preserving them for future generations.

To know and understand what is good and what is better, and at the same time commit a wrongdoing, is socially more injurious than committing a wrongdoing in ignorance. Therefore, building, in a society, a new system of values with the aim of creating environmental public awareness, should include systematic training activities aimed at increasing the basic knowledge of ecology and environmental protection, and, at the same time, heightening the sensitivity of individuals to nature.

Environmental public awareness comes from a result of general knowledge, specialist knowledge of a particular problem and also sensitivity to, and a sense of, responsibility for the environment.

Environmental public awareness is shaped throughout the whole life of particular people living in a given local community, performing specific work and having definite personal characteristics which have a deciding effect on their sense of responsibility and ability to emotionally perceive the environment as having value in itself. The knowledge acquired during school education and then systematically improved in adulthood, is an essential factor in heightening the environmental awareness of an individual and, at the same time, an indispensable condition for the development of a pro-ecological lifestyle.

To undertake actions aimed at increasing environmental public awareness regarding the protection of lakes and water reservoirs, answers should be known to the following questions:

Who shapes the attitude and awareness of members of the community?

• Parents,
• teachers, colleagues, acquaintances,
• fellow-workers,
• leaders,
• media,
• moral authorities,
• scientists, and,
• politicians.

Where is public awareness of the environment formed and shaped?

• Family home, family,
• nurseries, schools, schools of higher education,
• churches and religious organizations,
• professional environment, workplace, and,
• associations.

What shapes and increases the environmental public awareness?

• Schools and academic manuals,
• messages transmitted through mass media,
• children, youth, daily, popular and specialist press,
• television and radio programmes,
• films, including documentary films,
• Internet,
• own experience and observations,
• work for organizations, and,
• social status of the family and affluence.

To sum up, environmental public awareness depends on the level of environmental awareness of particular members of the community which is affected by many factors, including cultural, ethnic and religious connections, organization of family, professional and social life, type and level of education, social status, etc.

The knowledge of factors affecting the environmental awareness is essential for the selection of optimum environmental programmes and activities orientated at public participation in decision-making processes connected with resolving specific problems concerning water quality management in lakes and reservoirs.

Basic and specialist knowledge of an environmentally aware individual with respect to protection of lakes and water reservoirs should include, among others:

• basic notions in the field of environmental protection, including in particular the protection of lakes and water reservoirs and aquatic ecology,
• knowledge of inter-relationships of particular elements of the environment, including the relationship between air pollution, soil contamination, and the quality of surface and underground water,
• understanding of relationships between people and their environment,
• understanding of the notion of eutrophication, its causes and environmental implications for the entire ecosystem, including cause-and-effect relationships between human activity and the quality of surface waters,
• knowledge of public health hazards caused by the mass-algae blooms in lakes and reservoirs with an excess level of nutrients:
  • blue-green algae blooms, cyanobacterial water blooms may release toxins into the water,
  • moreover, cyanobacteria and their toxins can affect fish health, composition and structure of zooplankton populations, etc.,
• knowledge of methods for the elimination of effects of water pollution, including the elimination of major pollution sources responsible for eutrophication, including:
  • the way domestic wastes discharged to surface waters are responsible for eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs and how individual households can reduce the danger of excessive fertilization of lakes and waters by informed selection and use of household chemical products,
  • the types of industrial wastewater discharged to surface waters are responsible for eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs,
  • the way surface runoff is responsible for contamination of water in lakes and reservoirs, in that:
    • the way the agricultural industry is responsible for excessive fertilization of waters; methods for elimination of the sources of those hazards,
    • the way animal-breeding and fish pond farming should be carried out to prevent it from being the source of pollution discharge contributing to the process of eutrophication of waters,
    • the way areas surroundings lakes and reservoirs should be cultivated to minimize the risk of pollution,
    • how those areas can be used for recreation without pollution of water in lakes and reservoirs,
    • how inappropriate operation of septic tanks contributes to degradation of the aquatic environment,
    • how the improper management of waste disposal sites affects the quality of the environment, including water quality in lakes and reservoirs.

The environmentally-aware individual should be conscious about the needs and demands posed by different sectors of society and the government so that he/she can make a better judgment before and during his/her participation in a given programme or activity.

Table of Contents

• Brochure
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• International Year of Forests
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• World Environment Day
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• UNEP Campaign
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