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UCLA students celebrating Earth Day on Thursday may find themselves in a more environment-friendly setting than they would if they were not on a college campus.

Whether it is due to the wide variety of classes offered on environmental issues or campus organizations promoting awareness, many professors, researchers and students agree that college students are usually more knowledgeable about environmental issues than the general public.

“I believe that most college students would characterize themselves as more ‘pro-environment’ (than the average person),” said Georgina Wakefield, a third-year English student and the Environmental Alert project coordinator at UCLA for CALPIRG, a public interest research group.

Victoria Sork, professor and chairperson of the organismic biology, ecology and evolution department, said an explanation for this is that students at UCLA do not really constitute a random sample of the population.

“We’re all more sophisticated about the environment (than the general public),” Sork said. “The baseline knowledge about the environment is generally better here.”

The wide range of subjects college students are exposed to may be another reason for their higher levels of knowledge about the environment.

“We really don’t understand environmental issues unless we understand some of our other problems,” said Tom Smith, director of the Center for Tropical Research in the Institute of Environment and a professor in the OBEE department. “College allows students to take courses in areas that help promote understanding.”

According to Wakefield, many students who study political and social justice start to take an interest in environmental studies because they see that a lot of these issues are related, such as environmental racism.

“A student who is interested in race issues would come to realize that minorities often live in environmentally unsafe areas,” Wakefield said. “This raises their consciousness about environmental issues and creates this idea that a lot of issues are connected.”

Although the college students’ environmental knowledge is generally above average, most agree that the awareness level is far from perfect.

“Most college students are aware that problems like global warming and ozone depletion exist,” Wakefield said. “But at the same time, students don’t stay aware of the policies that perpetuate these things or the power behind the special interests whose agendas are often at odds with progressive environmental policies and even the larger public good.”

Another problem environmental advocates face is holding the public’s interest and concern long enough to make a difference.

“Smog in Los Angeles was getting better before, but now it’s getting worse because of increased use of large vehicles,” Sork said. “I guess people just forgot or got tired of paying attention to it.”

Despite smog and other environmental problems facing the UCLA community, many argue that the awareness level and concern of students for environmental issues are insufficient and changes need to be implemented.

“I prefer teaching undergraduate courses because (the students) may not have the exposure to what some of these issues are,” Smith said. “We all have to get involved, because in the next 20 to 30 years, we are facing a crisis in the loss of biodiversity.”

Some students feel there needs to be a stronger presence of these issues on campus.

“The Pentagon just released this report about the worst-case scenario that could play out from the effects of global warming,” Wakefield said. “However, this report wasn’t discussed at all on campus. ... Students are still very unaware and need to be educated.”