In this paper I am going to show how Nordic Geography textbooks for lower secondary schools (age 13-16) mention solutions to environmental problems.

Solutions of environmental problems referred in the textbooks can be present as: technical solutions, how the pupils can act to save the environment, democratic solutions and international solutions.

European culture from 1800 to our time has been very technologically optimistic, but after knowledge about environmental problems emerged the optimism has decreased. Today it is possible to discover a new wave of techno optimism. Geography textbooks also present new technology, mainly connected to energy, but technical solutions are not presented as the only way to deal with environmental problems. Effects of new technology are seldom discussed.

All textbooks indicate that personal behaviour can be important to solve environmental problems. Some textbooks has a message directly to the pupil, other textbooks indicate what the pupils can do to save the environment.

Environmental problems can also be solved by political solutions in a democracy. It is not enough what one individual can do alone.