Abstract:

The current study aimed to investigate the risk perception of the students regarding environmental problems and climate change. The study was conducted through a quantitative survey technique, using questionnaire as a tool for data collection. The universe of the study was Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad and data was collected from a sample of 350 respondents. The sample was selected from the population through a multi-stage cluster sampling technique. The results indicate that majority of the students are informed and concerned about environmental risks. Interestingly, 78.4% of the students consider humans as responsible for the increasing environmental hazards. While 60.1% disagreed with the statement that the future generation could have a better environment. However, a majority 80.2% of the students were found optimistic about curtailing environmental risks through human intervention. Some statistically significant gender variations also exist about risk perception as female students were found to be more concerned about environmental risks in comparison to male students.

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