Image of the environmental scientist

Abstract

The environmental scientist has been playing an important role in preventing and mitigating environmental pollution. Individuals’ images of the environmental scientist will likely impact and meditate their interest and attitudes toward environmental science as well as their willingness to take up an environmental science profession. However, prior studies focusing on the image of a professional are primarily of the general scientist. The environmental scientist and the image thereof remains out of the limelight of environmental science community and has been under-researched. In this article, on the basis of the retrospect on the stereotypical images of the general and environmental scientist and the gaps in previous studies, we attempted to report young individuals’ images of the environmental scientist in an alternative context. Drawing technique was employed and administered to 127 junior students aged from 13 to 15 year-old from a junior high school. The individuals’ image of environmental scientists can be generally abstracted as a male with environmental protection knowledge and commitment to environmental protection who does work more like a green chemist, ecology restorer, or plant protector and observes or cleans outdoors, primarily in forest, jungle, and/or by riverside.