Concrete megacities are not an obvious place to look for green citizens. Yet a new survey shows that, in China, the urban elite is most likely to get environmental gold stars.
Jianguo Liu of Michigan State University in East Lansing and colleagues quizzed 5073 people living in Chinese urban centres ranging from small country towns to Beijing and Shanghai.
They asked about six "green" activities like recycling, and found that people in larger cities were most likely to engage in them – the bigger the city, the greater the engagement. City-dwellers tend to be better educated and suffer more pollution, so may be more aware of the issues involved, says Liu.
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Respondents with jobs, especially managerial ones, did more than the unemployed, which Liu thinks reflects China's reliance on powerful institutions to solve its problems. "Many environmental actions come from the top," he says. "Organisations provide time for employees to do 'green' actions like planting trees."
The survey shows urbanites are more eco-aware, but does that make them greener? It does not assess the effects of the respondents' actions. And Riley Dunlap of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater points out that it did not reach rural areas, where people may have more sustainable lifestyles. Nonetheless, it adds to a growing body of evidence that urban infrastructure encourages green behaviour.
