Due to rising nature exploitation and ever growing environmental issues we examined Slovenian general public behaviour, attitudes toward and knowledge about environmental issues in our master's thesis. We investigated extent of environmental issues included in curricula, that is general and operative objectives in primary and grammar schools. We focused on current environmental issues regarding water, forest, food, genetics, waste, large predators and nature. We analysed attitudes, behaviour and knowledge of respondents using online survey and questionnaire made specifically for this research. Sample consisted of predominantly young and educated people. Results showed positive attitudes towards nature and moderate knowledge about environmental issues. Respondents reported about moderate sustainable behaviour. We confirmed statistically significant differences in attitudes regarding gender, type of residence and type of education. Men had less positive attitudes on most topics, with the exception of genetics, where less positive attitudes were expressed by women. Depending on the type of residence, people from farms expressed the least positive attitudes. Respondents whose education was related to biology expressed more positive attitudes on most topics. We also confirmed statistically significant differences in reported behaviour and knowledge regarding type of education. Respondents with a biology education reported more sustainable behaviour and demonstrated more knowledge. We did not confirm statistically significant differences in attitudes regarding the level of education. Our finding showed that knowledge about environmental issues affect attitudes toward it and that attitudes have higher impact on reported behaviour than knowledge. Lastly we found that those who attach more importance to biology in their daily life have more knowledge about and more positive attitudes toward environmental issues and nature.
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