Jingyi Ding

With the development of higher education, college students have become a new and important group for environmentally sustainable development. How to evaluate and strengthen the practical effect of ecological education is of great significance. Based on the survey data of 1579 university students, this study constructed a systematic index system of ecological education by using a hierarchical evaluation method. Moreover, OLS (Ordinary Least Squares), Oprobit, and intermediary effect models were used to analyze the influence relationship and mechanism of the two empirically and IV-Oprobit was used to solve the endogeneity problem. The results show the following: (1) Ecological education can effectively promote the sustainable behavior of university students, and the probability of university students implementing sustainable behavior increases by 10.7% with each unit increase in the level of ecological education. (2) Environmental value perception such as in individual economic value perception, social value perception, and health value perception are all important mediating channels of ecological education, among which health value perception has the strongest mediating effect. (3) Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) exposure positively moderates the impact of university students’ environmental value perception on their sustainable behavior. (4) There is a significant correlation between university students’ household registration, participation in environmental associations and hometown social networks, and sustainable behaviors. (5) The influence of ecological education on students’ behaviors shows heterogeneity in family household registration. Students from rural families have a higher level of environmental behavior and value perception than those from urban families. Moreover, they are more likely to exhibit behaviors under the influence of ecological education. The above results provide reference suggestions for the ecological education policy system and offer theoretical support and policy inspiration for promoting sustainable behaviors among global college students and enhancing the efficiency of ecological education in universities.

Reducing farmland abandonment is important to address food security issues. China is accelerating its transition into an aging society, and this change in the labor force structure may have an impact on farmland abandonment. This study is based on the China Labor Force Survey conducted in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 and collects data from 29,704 valid farmer samples in 29 provinces and cities across the nation. We investigate how farmer aging affects farmland abandonment from the viewpoints of information, mutual aid, and factor substitution using the Tobit and mediation effect models. The core conclusions are as follows: (1) There is a significant positive correlation between aging and abandoned farmland, that is, the higher the degree of aging in rural households, the more likely it is that farmland will be abandoned and the larger the area of abandoned farmland. (2) Aging has a multi-level impact on abandoned farmland, that is, aging will aggravate the abandonment of farmland from the perspectives of household head characteristics, family characteristics, and village characteristics. (3) Using the mediation effect model, aging will increase the abandonment of farmland due to less use of the Internet, agricultural cooperatives, and mechanization. This conclusion provides a basis for policy intervention, indicating that improving agricultural digitalization and modernization and increasing policy subsidies may be an effective way to slow down land abandonment.