Half of Students Interested in Civil Engineering Do Not Believe in Anthropogenic Climate Change

Abstract

This article describes beliefs related to human-caused climate change and predictors of these beliefs among students intending to pursue civil engineering. Based on a nationally distributed survey to first-year college engineering students (n=937) in the United States, civil engineering students are less likely than others to believe that climate change is caused by humans. One reason this is a problem is because civil engineering students who do not believe in human-caused climate change are less likely to want to address climate change in their careers. Education has potential to address this gap in knowledge. For example, coverage of topics related to climate change in high school courses is a strong predictor for belief in anthropogenic climate change. For educators working with college students who may not believe in anthropogenic climate change, simply covering the topic can increase students’ awareness, which would seem to lead them to more desire to address climate change issues, which is a necessity for realizing more-sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems.