In this paper we aim at answering the following research questions: What perceptions and beliefs towards ecological sustainability issues do Danish students in lower secondary school express? Do they fear climate change, and do they belief in saving the planet? Do they know Fridays for future, and are they engaged in it? How do they think about and handle their smartphones? Significant results of these and similar questions will be presented from a data collection from 1267 students in November 2023. The results will be tested against common background variables such as gender and socio-economic background and their level of knowledge about ecological sustainability issues. A general high level of knowledge seems not to correlate with engagement. While fear for climate change is high, their belief in saving the planet is not much lower? Such seemingly contradictory results will be discussed in relations to findings in other studies (Gericke et al., 2019) and theoretical considerations (Ratinen & Uusiautti, 2020; Straume, 2020; Pooley & O’Connor, 2000)

Gericke, N., Boeve-de Pauw, J., Berglund, T., & Olsson, D. (2019). The Sustainability Consciousness Questionnaire. Sustainable Development, 27(1), 35-49. Pooley, J. A., & O’Connor, M. (2000). Environmental Education and Attitudes: Emotions and Beliefs are What is Needed. Environment and Behavior, 32(5), 711-723. Ratinen, I., & Uusiautti, S. (2020). Finnish Students’ Knowledge of Climate Change Mitigation and Its Connection to Hope. Sustainability, 12(6), 2181. Straume, I. S. (2020). What may we hope for? Education in times of climate change. Constellations, 27(3), 540-552.