Interviews with children and young people about nature, environment and the future

Increasing concern about environmental issues is the background for interviewing children and adolescents from two different communities in Northern-Norway on issues concerning environmental threat, nature, animals and perspectives on the future. We interviewed 69 children and adolescents, and the results show that they are more preoccupied with environmental threat than threat of war and lack of work. They prepare themselves for a near future with more environmental problems, but combine a moderate pessimism regarding the near future with a personal optimism on behalf of themselves. Knowledge about nature and other environment elements--green, forest--much more than aspects of their own surroundings. They express a surprising respect for the intrinsic worth of animals and landscapes.