ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a short review of how environmental issues and ecological risks have affected and changed European societies and European politics in the last 50 years. In the first part, the scope of environmental problems and important changes over time are described. Based on competing theoretical approaches within environmental social sciences, the second part discusses why there are ecological problems and why these problems are so difficult to address and to handle. The theoretical approaches taken into account include system theory, conflict theory, rational choice theory and constructivist theory. The third part deals with the social and political consequences of environmental issues: consequences for individual citizens (the growth and development of environmental concern and pro-environmental behaviour), for businesses and the economy (problems and resistance to change, environmental management approaches, eco-audit systems and green-washing endeavours), and for the wider political system (the environmental protest movement, environmental justice claims, and progress and drawbacks of national and international environmental politics). The chapter concludes with hints and expectations concerning the future role of environmental problems in European societies, which are embedded in the global system of the world economy.
