Climate Change Perception and Awareness among Students of Kaduna State University, Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47514/kjg.2026.08.01.008Abstract
The need for this study was prompted by the activities of the program “Keep KASU Green”. The program encourages the planting of trees on Campus with the intention to create a micro-climate to mitigate the effect of heat on campus. Climate Change Awareness is crucial to promoting sustainable behavior and mitigation strategies. Therefore, the study assessed Climate Change Awareness among Students of Kaduna State University (KASU). In particular, the study assessed students' level of awareness, Sources of Information about climate change, their perception of the Causes, and Mitigation Strategies. Based on the consideration of students’ availability at the time of research, a sample size of 200 was purposively determined. Accordingly, simple random sampling was used to administer 200 questionnaires among 400-100 level Students from different Departments and 197 questionnaires were successfully recovered. Descriptive statistics were used in assessing and presenting the findings. The result indicates that about 87.8% of the respondents affirmed that they have basic knowledge of Climate Change, against about 9% who did not have such knowledge. Findings also revealed that a significant level of knowledge of Climate Change amongst Students was obtained mostly from social media (about 38%) and television (about 25%). The students have a fair knowledge of the causes of climate change, including an act of God (31%), human actions (22%), and carbon dioxide emissions (20%). It was determined that the students adequately understood across all levels of the students. However, there is a need to improve the scope of knowledge of Climate Change among the students and people in the immediate environment. Thus, the study recommends the need to integrate climate change education across all academic disciplines, encourage faith and cultural leaders in climate change literacy, and establish a climate change club in KASU.
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