Many Swiss people changed their habits due to the Fridays for Future climate strikes, including walking or cycling to work, vacationing closer to home, seeking local organic produce, eating more vegetarian meals, and reducing plastic waste. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne surveyed more than 1,200 Swiss residents aged 18 to 74 in October and November 2019, by which time Greta Thunberg’s lone protest had snowballed into a global movement involving some four million students in 150 countries. The study, published in September 2023, found that 30% of the survey respondents had taken concrete actions, showing that people "have become more aware of how their behavior affects the environment and that significant shifts are under way at an individual level,” says lead author Livia Fritz. “We also saw that changes made at the individual level can lead to broader societal change provided they’re supported by political action at the same time.”
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