Development and Structure of Environmental Worries in Germany 1984–2019

Abstract

Referring to a survey question in the German socio-economic panel, which measures worries about protecting the environment, the article looks at the development of environmental worries in Germany for the timespan 1984–2019. The analyses mainly have descriptive character. We explore several expectations and assumptions discussed in historical accounts of the environmental movement in Germany and in empirical studies on environmental attitudes and their determinants. Results show that the overall development can be divided into a period of rising environmental worries in the 1980s, a considerable decline in the 1990s, and a relative stability since 2000. From 2018 to 2019, however, a sizable upswing can be observed. Environmental worries are associated negatively with the unemployment rate and economic worries over time. In the 1980s and early 1990s, younger people were more worried than older people, but, in the meanwhile, this no longer holds. Education and (less so) income yielded significant differences in the 1980s and 1990s, but also these differences have faded away since 2000. Data confirm that environmental worries are shared more broadly in the population and that previously important group differences are increasingly leveling out.

Too worried about the environment to have children? Or more worried about the environment after having children? The reciprocal relationship between environmental concerns and fertility

“…While global concentrations of atmospheric CO2 have been rising constantly over the past 60 years, subjective concerns about climate change, or about the environment, have been subject to strong volatility, including in Germany (Hartmann & Preisendörfer, 2021). In the early years of GSOEP (1984GSOEP ( -1989, many respondents reported having environmental concerns, as the accumulated damage to forests due to air pollution and subsequent acid rain received considerable attention and contributed to strong environmental awareness throughout Germany (OECD, 2000;Fowler et al, 2020).…”

“…Following German reunification, the proportion of respondents reporting major concerns decreased substantially. By the end of the 1990s, the proportion indicating that were very concerned had fallen to 23% (Hartmann & Preisendörfer, 2021). During the early 2000s, environmental concerns stabilized at relatively low levels (around 30%), or increased very slightly (Hartmann & Preisendörfer, 2021).…”

“…By the end of the 1990s, the proportion indicating that were very concerned had fallen to 23% (Hartmann & Preisendörfer, 2021). During the early 2000s, environmental concerns stabilized at relatively low levels (around 30%), or increased very slightly (Hartmann & Preisendörfer, 2021). A surge in concern reported in 2007 may be partly explained by the release of the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," which triggered an intensified debate about climate change in Germany (Schipperges, 2020).…”

The Changing Prioritization of Environmental Protection in Britain: 1982–2019

“…There is much evidence at the cross-national level that environmental attitudes are sensitive to changes in unemployment rates (Duijndam and van Beukering 2021;Kenny 2020;Scruggs and Benegal 2012). Longitudinal studies from Germany and Sweden do, however, suggest that the association between economic cycles and environmental concern and saliency, respectively, is not as strong now as previously (Harring et al 2011;Hartmann and Preisendörfer 2021). Moreover, panel data analysis from the US and New Zealand finds that the decline in environmental concern following the 2008 financial crisis cannot be accounted for by changes in individual-level perceptions of the economy or respondents' own financial situation, and in the US specifically, subnational variation in economic conditions (Kenny 2018a;Mildenberger and Leiserowitz 2017).…”

The Effects of Urban Living Conditions on Subjective Well-Being: The Case of German Foreign Service Employees

“…While there is evidence that people with higher levels of education or income express more concern about their environment (Xiao & McCright, 2007 ; Meyer et al, 2022 ), there is other evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel 1994–2019 showing that previously important group differences in the German population with respect to environmental concerns have increasingly levelled out in recent years (Hartmann & Preisendörfer, 2021 ). Evidence on air pollution, for example, suggests that residents of richer residential areas are more sensitive to air pollution than residents of lower-quality neighbourhoods (Cheng et al, 2022 ).…”