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Report on I <3 the Earth! Your Relationship with Our Planet
Smart girls decide for themselves™.
Because this survey was posted in April, we had Earth Day on the mind! These questions asked you to think about your own relationship with Mother Earth. Who responded? We had 173 survey takers total, with 163 girls, 4 boys and 6 who preferred not to say, and our median age was 13. Let's take a look at some quick trends that popped up in our survey!
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Your relationship with the Earth is most like your relationship with a friend, at least according to 60 of you. Another 21 said it's like your relationship with your mom or with a teacher.
You tend to like spending time outside! Only 3 of you said no, you don't really like to be in the great outdoors.
If someone spends lots of time outside, is that person going to care about the planet more than others? You guys were a bit split on this - 26% said no way, that's not true, while 66% thought that might be true and 7% thought that's definitely the case.
Most of you would describe the natural world as either beautiful or holding many mysteries, and your favorite parts are the scenery (53%), the animals (20%) and the outdoor activities it allows us to participate in (like rock climbing, hiking, whitewater rafting, etc.) (20%).
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We asked about your favorite memory involving the natural world. Here are some of your responses:
"All my life I have lived in New York City, but recently I just moved to Syracuse, NY and believe it or not, this is as much nature as I've explored probably since I was a little girl. The things I see & observe everyday are quite new to me and some not, but in NYC I never really cared to look because of the way of living in the city."
"One day a couple of years ago I was in my front yard around five or six in the evening. A butterfly unexpectedly landed on my shoulder, and stayed there briefly before flying away."
"Anytime I go hiking with my best friend. We make forts out of dead trees and stuff. Also, we can talk freely because I think it makes us feel as if we are the only ones on the earth."
"When we drove home one Sunday on the highway the sun was setting and reflected on the clouds and turned them into a vibrant orange and crimson. The sky looked as if it was on fire!"
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| Which do you think is more powerful? |
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Almost 75% of you believe the earth is more powerful than humans. Maybe this belief comes from the occurence of natural disasters. This graph shows which natural disasters you have experienced:
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| Has your family ever been affected by a natural disaster? Which type? |
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For those of you who have been affected by a natural disaster, 14 indicated your homes were lost or damaged, while 10 had lost or damaged belongings. Five lost friends and three lost family members.
How does or would being affected by a natural disaster make you feel? The most common answers were determined to do more to help people who have been affected by natural disasters and angry at the things people do to the planet that can cause natural disasters.
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| How concerned are you with the state of the earth and the future of the planet? |
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As the graph above indicates, most of you are at least fairly concerned with the state of the earth and the future of the planet.
Many of you know others your age who are concerned about the planet and its future, and some of you ventured as far as to say your generation is more concerned about the planet than your parents'! Of you, 47% believe your generation is more concerned, compared to 18% who believe your parents' generation is more concerned. Thirty-eight percent believe the two generations are equally concerned.
About half of you believe it's at least somewhat likely you'll have a job in the future that is dedicated to saving the planet, while 77% say it's at least somewhat likely you'll participate in community activities to save the planet or do things at home that help the earth.
That's the future. What are you doing now to help Mother Nature? You engage in many activities to try to help the planet. This table shows them more in detail:
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| What do you do personally to help the planet? |
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count | percent |
you do
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| Recycle |
125 | 9.25 |
| Turn off the lights |
132 | 9.77 |
| Carpool |
49 | 3.63 |
| Ride my bike or walk places |
78 | 5.77 |
| I take faster showers |
54 | 4 |
| I use public transportation |
41 | 3.03 |
| Use florescent light bulbs |
76 | 5.63 |
| Turn off appliances |
132 | 9.77 |
| Use a clothesline |
49 | 3.63 |
| Print on both sides |
80 | 5.92 |
| Buy recycled products |
77 | 5.7 |
| Products w/ little packaging |
41 | 3.03 |
| Reuse my shopping bags |
98 | 7.25 |
| Use a reusable lunchbox or bag |
80 | 5.92 |
| Fill up a travel mug |
29 | 2.15 |
| Eat locally grown foods |
50 | 3.7 |
| Eat fresh food instead of frozen |
59 | 4.37 |
| Eat less meat |
50 | 3.7 |
| Grow my own food |
32 | 2.37 |
| other |
19 | 1.41 |
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"Buy organic cotten t-shirts because I have one and it is softer than my other t-shirts and it is also helping the earth."
"Once I had a compost pile. Those are very helpful for disposing of organic garbage, even newspapers!"
"Spread the word to other people about doing the little things like recycling - telling other people can help a lot, because just by telling one person, you've effectively doubled your work to help save the planet."
"Make sure that your cleaning products are safe for the environment - no areosol containers! Also, wash your clothes with cold water using Tide Coldwash."
"Some types of make-up are great to go green with!"
"Try to make wanted items out of things you already have, such as the plastic juice box purse. You're putting it to good use."
"Become a vegetarian. It cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions."
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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
with us!
Please remember that all web-based polls
are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the
respondents to participate in the surveys.
All our surveys are anonymous; check out our privacy
policy. All data copyright 1996-2007.
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