ABSTRACT
Environmental concern is one of the most powerful and fastest growing cultural trends throughout the industrialized world. The reinforced public discussion of environmental protection against water, soil, and air pollution, acid rain, oil spill at sea, the greenhouse effect, and the thinning of the ozone layer supports the development of the ecological movement. Longitudinal studies in Europe confirm the constantly growing sensibility of the population toward environmental issues. Whereas unemployment remained the top concern of the German nation during the 1980s the importance of environment climbed from 9% to 57%, weighing equally with unemployment, by the end of that decade (Voller & Winkler, 1991).
