Awareness of Climate Change and Sustainable Development among Undergraduates from two Selected Universities in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated awareness of climate change and sustainable development among undergraduates in two universities: University of Ibadan, Ibadan and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso in Oyo State of Nigeria. This was aimed at increasing the knowledge of undergraduates on climate change and sustainable development.The study adopted a survey design. The population for the study consisted of 300 hundred undergraduates in University of Ibadan, Ibadan and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso in Oyo State, Nigeria. The students were selected using purposively random sampling technique. A 45-item each with Likert type response format titled ''Awareness of Climate Change and Sustainable Development among Undergraduates Students'' tagged ACCSDUS were administered. Data obtained were analyzed using simple percentages and t-test.The results showed that undergraduates possessed high level of awareness on the concept of climate change, have access to the sources of information and factors of personal experience, public sources and education greatly influence their awareness. The results further showed that there was no significant difference in the level of climate change and sustainable development awareness in term of gender (t= 0.733 > 0.05). There is a significant difference in the level of awareness of undergraduates on the concept of climate change based on school ownership (t= 0.013 < 0.05).The study concluded that climate change education should be structured and embedded in the curricula of schools at all levels and that training, re-training, empowerment or enlightenment of the public and stakeholders in climate change should be carried out without bias, discrimination or marginalization of any form.

Students in Climate Action: A Study of Some Influential Factors and Implications of Knowledge Gaps in Africa

“…[20] (p. 25) Increasing peoples' awareness through education is an essential measure to drive active participation at all levels of the community in tackling climate change [8]. Agboola and Emmanuel [21], justify the need for awareness and enlightenment on climate change and sustainable development noting that awareness on climate change among the general public is pertinent whilst education is an essential component and catalyst for responding to global climate change. They examined climate change awareness among undergraduate students.…”

Assessment of the Level of Knowledge of Climate Change of Undergraduate Science and Agriculture Students

“…For this reason, the results presented in this section could not be compared with findings of previous studies. One exception, however, is the study of Agboola and Emmanuel (2016), which reported lack of significant difference in the level of awareness of CC and sustainable development between the male and female students in their sample. However, these researchers did not provide an explanation of this finding.…”

“…Corollary to this, Crowley (2000) and Frigg, Thompson, and Wernd (2015) emphasized the finding that the temperature increase in the late 20 th century was caused primarily by GHG forcing and that, accordingly, our trust in that the GHGs explain the global warming is quite high. These gases mainly include carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), ammonia (NH 3 ), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6 ) (Agboola & Emmanuel, 2016;Odjugo, 2010). Carbon dioxide is the particular GHG emitted at the highest quantities, followed by CH 4 , the CFCs, and N 2 O (Odjugo, 2010).…”

“…For instance, a higher percentage (89.2%) of the sample university students in the study of Ojomo et al (2015) realized that human activities are responsible for CC than the percentage of the sample university students in the present study (74.3% (Table 3)). Another example of studies reporting very high levels of CC knowledge is the study of Agboola and Emmanuel (2016), which assessed awareness of CC and sustainable development amongst 300 undergraduate students in two universities in Nigeria: Ladoke Akintola University of Technology and University of Ibadan. They found that 97.0% of the sample students realized that CC is happening and that 94.3% of the students knew that it manifests differently in different regions in the World while 92.1% agreed on that the human community experiences the CC effects.…”

“…The corresponding percentages in the current study are 86.7% (Table 5), 84.6% (Table 5), 88.0% (Table 7), 64.4% (Table 5), 67.6% (Table 6), 68.4% (Table 7), 88.0% (Table 7), and 89.1% (Table 7), respectively. However, while the CCKT designed and developed in the present study is characterized by balanced coverage and representation of the nature, causes, and effects of CC, the instrument (questionnaire) employed in the study of Agboola and Emmanuel (2016) lacks balance as it concentrates on effects, then nature, of CC, with extremely limited coverage of its causes.…”