Ecological consciousness as a factor influencing the sustainable development of European countries Journal of Geology, Geography and Geoecology

. The article is devoted to the study of the influence of ecological public con sciousness on the state of perception of ecological problems in European countries and Ukraine. Ecological consciousness is considered as a latent determinant of modern tendencies of realization of the concept of sustainable development in the context of greening of the international economic system. It is noted that in conditions of social uncertainty, people have the effect of «ecological alienation» as a characteristic of the state of perception of environmental problems in the minds of members of modern society. Although the issues of rational use of economic resources, finding ways to green the international economy, preventing man-made risks and the global envi ronmental crisis are the focus of European governments, an effective solution to these issues is not possible without the reliable support of society. After all, the effectiveness of the environmental policy of each state depends on the trends of perception of environmental problems by its citizens. Issues of environmental consciousness are more related to ethical categories, as they have a significant impact on the formation of civic attitudes of the individual regarding the perception of the importance of certain aspects of society. That is why the analysis of the state of ecological consciousness of the inhabitants of European countries and Ukraine was studied according to the results of the 7 th wave, 2017-2020 of the comparative study “World Values Survey” (WVS) using comparative and typological analysis. The World Values Survey is the largest non-profit international survey of human beliefs and values, which contributes to the monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals and the goals set by the UN program for the period after 2015. From the presented data set, the basic empirical components were identified, which, according to the authors, illustrate the European context of the greening of con sciousness - the attitude to technologization; the priority of the ecological state of the country over the economic development of society; the state of trust in environmental protection organizations and the level of active civil position on environmental protection. On the basis of the secondary analysis of data, the key modern tendencies of formation of ecological consciousness in the countries of Europe and Ukraine are substantiated: tendency to ecological thinking; formation of ecological culture; economic rationality. The conclusion is made about the expediency of monitoring and forecasting the state of ecological public consciousness as one of the factors regulating global socio-economic processes in European countries and Ukraine. According to the authors, the environmental consciousness of members of society determines the degree of permissible range of orientation of a country to implement environmentally friendly goals of sustainable development. The study of the variability of the dominance of the trends of ecological consciousness mentioned in the article in certain socio-demographic communities allows to create an effective system of social guarantees in providing conditions for effective socio-economic development and maintaining an ecologically healthy living environment, both in Europe as a whole and in individual countries, in particular.


Introduction
The idea to study the European context of ecological consciousness arose after acquainting the authors with the published results of the study «World Research Values» (World Values Survey, WVS) in Europe and Ukraine, which were presented to Ukraine October 27, 2020 with the support of Ukrainian culture Foundation at the initiative of the public organization «Ukrainian Center for European Policy» in partnership with the research agency « Info Sapiens» and the Center for Social Monitoring. WVS is a longterm comparative study, which was founded in 1981 by Professor R. Inglehart of the University of Michigan (USA) is based on the European Values Survey (EVS) and is one of the most widely used and authoritative international studies, covering almost 120 countries. Ukraine joined this study in 1999, when the fourth wave of WVS took place and participated in the following waves (the fifth in 2006, the sixth in 2011 and the seventh in 2020) (Svitove doslidzhennya tsinnostey v Ukrayini, 2020). Some of the questions in this survey relate to environmental issues. When reviewing the results of research in Ukraine, our attention was attracted and answer to question that illustrated the change of perception in the minds of Ukrainian relationship of ecology and economy. Namely, respondents were asked to choose one of the two statements that is closer to them -«The priority should be to protect the environment, even if it will slow economic growth and job losses» or «Economic growth and new jobs should be paramount, even if the environment will suffer from this»). 45% of them chose the environmental protection as a priority in 1999, and 44.1% -in 2020. Economic growth, even due to the deterioration of the environmental situation in 1999, was chosen as a priority by 29%, and in 2020 by 43.9% (Svitove doslidzhennya tsinnostey v Ukrayini, 2020). This made us think about the need for a deeper study of the ecological orientation of the value orientations of members of modern society as an internal factor in the greening of social processes in the country.
The issue of studying environmental issues is not new to world scientific discourse. The experience of recent years has shown that in the process of solving global environmental problems, the impact of institutional changes on nature management is insufficient. That is why, recently, scientists are paying more and more attention to the study of social impact on the environmental consciousness of citizens. Here are a few examples that, in our opinion, illustrate a certain level of global relevance of our issues. American researchers Johnson, Eaton, Mikels-Carrasco, and Case, studying coastal ecosystems in the eastern United States (which have undergone significant changes as a result of human activities), concluded that we should not focus solely on environmental protection without taking into account the «social landscape» of certain areas. It is necessary to create local «environmental communities», based on local culture, social norms, social trust, etc., which will form a certain social cohesion and facilitate the solution of environmental problems. And for this it is necessary to form an ecological culture, because social and ecological systems are interconnected (Johnson, Eaton, Mikels-Carrasco, and Case, 2020). The experience of China is also in-teresting, where since 2011 the «environmental revolution» course has been taken (according to Zhong, Shi), which, according to researchers, is based not only on the recognition of existing environmental problems by the state and citizens, but also on ecological consciousness of people, which researchers call the «cornerstone» of improving the environmental situation through the consciousness of residents of different regions of the reasons for the deterioration of the situation and personal responsibility for it (Zhong, Shi, 2011). In Germany, ecological consciousness has long been addressed in the Environmental Policy Research Center (Freie Universität Berlin), trying to convey to citizens that solving environmental problems is directly related to the socio-economic well-being of people (Jacob, Quitzow, Bär, 2011)

and others.
Our examples make it possible to understand that the world practice of environmental protection is no longer focused so much on overcoming the consequences of damage to the environment, but on finding and implementing mechanisms to prevent the impact of negative human activities on the environment.
We believe that the relevance of the study of latent determinants of economic development increases in periods of social uncertainty, especially when they become global. This is due to the fact that the state of uncertainty is exacerbated by the energy crisis that arises as a result of competition between alternative sources of its production. Climate change, population growth, urbanization, and growing demand for electricity require responsible behavior at all levels of the hierarchy of social organizations and ensuring the sustainable development of relevant systems and structures.
However, there is a paradoxical situation. On the one hand, with the increase in man-made risks in modern societies, threats of a looming environmental disaster, a global environmental crisis, are growing. The issues of rational use of economic resources, finding ways to green the international economy and achieving the goals of sustainable development (Analitychna dopovid' tsentru Razumkova, 2019) are in the center of attention of governments around the world.
On the other hand, it is obvious that the solution of any state or regional environmental problems is impossible without the reliable support of society members. However, the problem is that in the minds of ordinary citizens there is an effect of «environmental alienation» (according to W. Beck) (Sorensen, Christiansen, 2014), when economic development and environmental security are perceived at the level of dichotomy (or / or) W. Beck explains this by the current state of «risk victims». And this is quite justified, because the situation of social uncertainty determines not only the collective social behavior (Yereskova, Mazuryk, Aleksandrova, 2020;, when members of societies need to form a «hierarchy» of their own reactions between social, economic or environmental risks (Bauman, 2000;Maffesoli, 2016;Burluts'ka, 2015). It also determines the desire of members of modern societies not to adhere to certain established principles in public affairs, but to solve each socially determined issue in view of its attractiveness to a particular person. This means that modern man is guided by considerations of expediency and the desire to reach a compromise between different views on socially significant issues. In such situation, it makes sense to pay attention to the level of formation of social and environmental responsibility that has developed in certain societies. It is clear that environmental policy, problems related to environmental protection should be the subject of state environmental activities. The statement of the existence of environmental problems at the state level necessitates specific intervention by interested parties (society, state, government agencies, business communities, social groups), based on social responsibility, environmental law, environmental audit (Natsional'na dopovid' pro stan navkolyshn'oho pryrodn'oho seredovyshcha v Ukrayini, 2020).
In our opinion, one of the leading roles of environmental policy should be played by the ethical factor. Effective environmental policy is characterized by a certain set of environmental values established in a certain society, which have a serious impact on how the citizen percept the importance of their own influence on environmental policy in nation states. There is also a deep connection between the environmental situation and the socio-political organization of society. Social problems are often caused by environmental preconditions in terms of restricting human rights to a quality living environment.
The issues of environmental awareness are more in those categories where civil society institutions are important, as they have a significant impact on the formation of civic positions of the individual and, consequently, the preservation of the integrity of society. The correct perception of ecological culture by social institutions, will allow to green the moral consciousness, change values, because man and society act as elements of a single system «nature-society», outside of which their existence is impossible, but the interests of nature come to the fore, get priority over the interests of society, included in the sphere of morality (Anats'ka, 2020). That is why the aim of the article is to define the manifestations of environmental awareness in European societies and Ukraine as an el-ement of ensuring effective sustainable development. The scientific novelty of the approach proposed by the authors is to apply the potential of the methodology of comparative social research to diagnose the state of environmental consciousness as a tool to prevent the threat of irresponsible attitude of the population of European countries to current environmental challenges.

Materials and methods of research
As a methodological basis of our study, we applied a procedural approach (according to P. Shtompka) to social problems, according to which society is perceived not so much as an object, but as a kind of "field of opportunity" of social actors (Sztompka, 2000). We mean that modern societies are tested by constant risks, the main content of which is the need to assess the level of «threats» -economic, social, environmental, etc. for the effective functioning of a country. In other words, members of societies need to streamline their own attitudes and reactions to such external challenges. The information base of our study was the results of the 7 th wave (2017-2020) of the comparative cross-cultural study "World Values Survey" (World Values Survey, WVS), which contains empirical data on the distribution of sociocultural values of residents of European countries and Ukraine. In each country, the survey is conducted on a nationally representative sample of a standardized questionnaire. As for now WVS is the largest nonprofit international survey of human beliefs and values, which contributes to the monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals and the goals set by the UN (United Nations) program for the period after 2015. The main method for the realization of their research goal, the authors of the article chose the secondary analysis of the results of this study, which was able to synthesize the quantitative characteristics of the respondents' answers in the indicators of the formation of environmental consciousness. Typological analysis was used to determine the trend and state in the ecological consciousness of the inhabitants of European countries and Ukraine.
In our opinion, the proposed approach has a universal analytical potential to study the state of formation of environmental consciousness. After all, the idea of fixing and typologizing direct or indirect indicators of the formation of environmental consciousness in a particular country or region, allows you to use both open empirical data (official statistics, survey results, analytical reports, scientific articles, etc.) and targeted social research on perception in the public consciousness of certain environmental problems (or attitudes to them) within the framework of state or public initiatives (including relevant blocks of issues). However, it should be noted, that the method has certain limitations, which are due to the peculiarities of the method of secondary analysis. This method has recently become an increasingly popular means of obtaining social knowledge, as only large research structures are able to conduct large-scale nationwide, cross-cultural surveys. However, it should be borne in mind that secondary (already available) information is data that has been previously collected for purposes other than the one currently being addressed. Therefore, the application of our proposed approach requires researchers of environmental consciousness a certain interdisciplinary understanding of the problem, its multifaceted specifics (system of state regulation and response to environmental challenges, the level of greening the economy, socio-cultural features of certain countries and regions, etc.).

Results and discussions
We are accustomed to the fact that important areas of environmental research are, first of all, environmental policy of political and economic activities, policy of rational and environmentally safe use of nature, and the formation of socio-ecological views is based on creating and concretizing various theories of nature optimization. All this suggests that modern countries are experiencing a period of change in established perceptions of the relationship between human and nature, during which mature fundamentally new ideas that promote consciousness of the need to improve social development through environmentally safety changes.
In a global situation of social uncertainty, it is necessary to form new ethical standards of living, behavior and well-being, which would enable members of society to relate consciously to nature and its resources on the basis of enshrining in the public consciousness of social and environmental responsibility. Due to the fact that under certain conditions, socioecological ideas have become a factor in the accelerated development of society, stimulating the active and transformative impact of people on nature.
If consider ecological consciousness as a tendency of the social consciousness evolution, we want to emphasize that we are not talking about some new form or social type of worldview, but only about the reorientation of its structure due to the influence of modern ecological situation on human life. By «environmental consciousness» we mean the spread in the community of ideas that reflect the level of perception by person of its habitat protection. After all, the ecological aspect of the worldview, at all stages of development of human society, was an integral element of certain spheres of social consciousness, which periodically manifested itself in mass psychology, legal, philosophical views of a certain era. But only in the period of modern science and technology aimed converting the magnitude of human impacts on nature have reached such large proportions that the question of relations between society and the biosphere have to acquire a peculiar environmentally friendly shade all elements of social consciousness. In other words, the reflection of modern environmental problems in the mind cannot, but affect the environment itself. That causes the «growth» of the environmental component in all areas and levels of public consciousness, penetration into ideological concepts and socio-psychological guidelines of individuals.
We understand that the term «greening of consciousness» is quite conditional, but, in our opinion, it can be used as a kind of indicator of the perception of members of modern European societies and Ukraine of the environmental challenges nowadays. In these conditions, the greening of the worldview should be understood as a set of measures that ensure the creation of scientifically sound and humanistically oriented views, which would be shared by the general population, implemented in their daily practices and lifestyles, would ensure the functioning of optimal models of society solving both global problems of today and the task of accelerating scientific, technological and social progress.
In order to focus on the state of environmental consciousness, we have identified from the data set the empirical components that, in our opinion, visualize the manifestations of environmental consciousness: the attitude to technology; the priority of the ecological state of the country over the economic development of society; the state of trust in environmental protection organizations and the level of active citizenship in relation to environmental protection.
Displaying the characteristics of environmental consciousness, we began to determine trends in the attitude of European and Ukrainian people to the further technologicalization of socio-economic development of the country (Table 1).
The analysis of the answers made it possible to outline the trends of consciousness of the representatives of certain countries about the need for further development of technologies. It should be noted that the list of countries presented in the Table 1 and other  tables (for example, Tables 3 and 4) was not determined by the authors of the article, but was due to the peculiarities of the World Values Survey in individual particular countries, which had the opportunity to According to the «drivers» of the implementation of the World Study in a particular country, were appropriate for their countries. As you can see, the representatives of these countries positively assess the priority of technology development. However, it is worth paying attention to the answers that have a negative focus. We can assume that the people of Germany and Romania are more concerned on the possible dominance of technology over other spheres of life of their societies (social, environmental, etc.) and the possible impact of technology on the environment.
We have identified the priority in the minds of respondents of environmental or economic issues in the development of European societies by analyzing the answers to questions about the ranking of environmental or economic issues (Figure 1).
Empirical evidence has confirmed the existence of the effect of «environmental alienation» in the consciousness of members of modern European societies which we have already mentioned in the introduction. Residents of Lithuania, Poland and Romania showed the greatest effect (clear priority for economic growth). This effect almost doesn't exist in Sweden (a clear priority for solving environmental problems). In other countries (except Bulgaria and Ukraine) there is a steady trend of understanding the importance of the impact of the environment on society. Bulgaria and Ukraine, on the one hand, are also in this trend, but statistical differences between the selected options compared to other countries (Ukraine -0.2%; Bulgaria -13.6%) may indicate possible "fluctuations" of public consciousness in the case of deterioration of socio-economic situation in these countries.
It does not need to prove that the indicator of trust of society members in certain social institutions makes it possible to understand the current state and determine the prospects for the country›s development in the appropriate direction. In modern conditions of social uncertainties, this issue becomes especially important, because social distrust is one of the deterrents to the effective and harmonious development of any society. That is why we have identified trust in environmental organizations as one of the components of the environmental awareness state (Table 2). On the one hand, statistics show the current trend in European countries regarding the perception of environmental organizations as subjects of social influence. However, if we pay attention to the categorical distribution of unambiguously positive and unambiguously negative responses, we can trace the variability of trends in the legitimacy of these organizations in the consciousness of societies' members: 1) perception of organizations as a subject of social impact on society (static gap between categories ≥ 6%) -Sweden, Austria, Spain; 2) situational perception of the organization as a subject of social influence (statistical gap ≤ 4) -Estonia, Germany, Italy, France, Lithuania, Hungary; 3) non-perception of organizations as a subject of social influence (static gap between categories ≥ 6%) -Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Czech Republic.
It is well known that the active civil position of members of society in relation to certain problems of the country development affects the formation of vectors of public policy and social norms in society. In our opinion, the results of the World Values Survey on the level of involvement of citizens in environmental organizations (presented by individual countries) provide insight into the prospects for changing trends in public consciousness to gain greater influence in these organizations in European countries (Table 3).
As we can see, the percentage of involvement of citizens of individual countries in activities of environmental organizations is quite low, even if the answers are categorized only by polar options (belong / do not belong). We mean the statistical association of the degree of involvement (active / inactive member).
However, for validation tendencies, whether it concerns only organizations with environmental protection or the low public activity is a definite trend in modern European societies we have monitored the level of manifestation of active citizenship also relation to other organizations (Table 4). A comparative analysis of the dependence of the level of citizenship on the orientation of organizations gave us the opportunity to state that low involvement of citizens in environmental activities in Ukraine and Greece is due to general trends in the attitude of society members to civic activity of organizations, which is 0.9% in Greece and 1.1% in Ukraine). In Germany, in the minds consciousness of citizens, membership in environmental organizations is clearly correlated with membership in trade unions (statistical development of the option "is an active member" is 1%) and professional associations (static gap option "is an active member" is 1.3%), compared to political parties (statistical gap of the option "is an active member" of 3.8% in favor of environmental organizations). In Romania, the low involvement of citizens in environmental organizations, to some extent, illustrates the lack of perception in the public consciousness of these organizations as a subject of social influence on socio-economic development (maximum static gap option "is an active member" is 2.5%).
Summarizing the analyzed empirical components of the European context of greening consciousness, we identified three main trends, formed in European countries and Ukraine, that to varying degrees, allow to further regulate the genesis of this component in the public consciousness of members of societies: -tendency to ecological thinking, which provides awareness of the existence of a direct link between the state of the environment and socio-economic development. It is characterized by the recognition of the priority of the issue of taking into account the peculiarities of the impact of the environment on the life of society. Willingness to change in order to preserve the environment of life. This trend is typical for Sweden; formation of ecological culture, which determines the consolidation of manifestations of ecological consciousness through individual everyday practices, an element of which is the solution of ecological problems. It is characterized by the formation of a holistic perception of the environment, the establishment and awareness of certain norms of relations between society and the environment, the consolidation in society of beliefs that the protection and preservation of nature is one of the important state-building tasks. However, this does not preclude controversy over the priority of environmental issues. This trend dominates the public consciousness of most European countries (Hungary, Germany, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Austria, Greece, the Czech Republic and France); -economic rationality which affects the seriousness of the perception of the environment state as a factor of the successful development of the country. It is characterized by determining the priority of financial, industrial and technological development of society. This trend is clearly demonstrated by Lithuania, Poland and Romania. Bulgaria and Ukraine balance between this trend and the formation of ecological culture.
So, the environmental consciousness of members of society determines the degree of acceptable range of the country's orientation towards the implementation of environmentally oriented goals of sustainable development. The study of the variability of the dominance of these trends in environmental consciousness in certain socio-demographic communities allows to create an effective system of social guarantees in providing conditions for effective socio-economic development and maintaining an ecologically healthy living environment, both in Europe as a whole and in particular countries.

Conclusion
The approach to study the environmental consciousness we propose is caused by the reaction of residents of any country on environmental issues arise only from changes in the ecological system, which usually affects either the socio-economic development of society, or the health of society. In conditions of social uncertainty, the consciousness of the majority is dominated by an individual "formula" according to which an average citizen determines the strength and direction of this influence. According to the practice, environmental problems are not always perceived by the majority as a risk (compared to economic ones, for example). This raises the debate about the level of greening of public consciousness and its impact on the international economic system.
Our scientific research in the field of taking into account the state of environmental consciousness in the process of achieving sustainable development goals will contribute not only to understanding the existing interdependencies of modern socio-economic development on latent factors of society's perception of social reality, but also to minimize (and ideally overcome) individualized attitude to environmental issues. After all, today's realities require the formation of ecological consciousness, the main manifestations of which can be considered an understanding of the general laws of coexistence and development of environment and society, recognition of social conditionality of the ecological vector of development and overcoming consumer attitudes to the environment as a source of material benefits.
A balanced combination in the formation of environmental awareness of the trends identified by us (environmental thinking, environmental culture and economic rationality) is the basis not only for environmental protection of social interests of society members, but also to enshrine the principles of environmental responsibility component of daily life in public consciousness. However, we must not forget that a necessary condition for the transformation of environmental consciousness into a factor of a social impact on economic development is the existence of civil society. In other words, it is necessary to create such socially conditioned backgrounds to be sure that the public will be environmentally competent, aimed at improving environmental culture and worldview, assistance in solving both local and international environmental problems.