The value of clean ice: Environmental worldviews and beliefs of New Zealand Antarctic field scientists

• Main Authors: Steel, Gary D., Neufeld, E., Stewart, Emma
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: SCAR
• Subjects: Antarctica; Antarctic; New Zealand; Scott Base; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctic Science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10182/9854; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.53122

Field scientists in Antarctica work in an environment that is highly sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance. Thus, the factors that determine their environmentally oriented behaviours while in the field are critical to understanding and managing the impact of data collection. Adopting the theoretical structure outlined in Stern and Dietz’s (1994) Value-Belief-Norm Theory, this study sought to catalogue and analyse the environmental worldview, concerns, and beliefs of a group of field scientists operating through Scott Base, Antarctica. During the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons, 75 scientists and other field researchers (f = 27, m = 48; mean age = 39.7 years, sd =12.0) completed the New Ecological Paradigm scale (NEP; Dunlap et al., 2000) and Snelgar’s (2006) environmental beliefs and concerns scale. Analyses of the data indicate that NZ Antarctic field science personnel possess a dominantly ecocentric (vs. anthropocentric) worldview. This orientation is most strongly and positively correlated with beliefs about the connection between the Antarctic environment and the global biosphere. It is also positively related to altruistic and, to much lesser extent, egoistic beliefs. These results will be discussed with respect to the theory of pro-environmental behaviour and the practice of environmental management in Antarctica.