Worrying About the Environment: A Passing Trend or Here To Stay?

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It has been a long time since the environment received as much press as in 2007. A glance at recently released books shows an ever-increasing importance given to global warming, nuclear energy and organic food. Documentary films—with the most influential being no doubt Davis Guggenheim’s An Inconvenient Truth featuring Al Gore—seem to be following the trend. There appears to be a shift in social consciousness: rarely a week goes by without a mention of the environment somewhere in the news, whether bacteria-infected lakes or the inauguration of a new bicycle path. Is there a change in the making, or is this just a passing trend? Environmental damage is often portrayed as an almost irreversible fact. Do people, and in particular youth, feel that they can make a difference? Do they care? And if they do, what role do they think they can play? Tolerance.ca surveyed students and young professionals, as well as specialists in the field, to see what they have to say.