International Social Survey Programme: Environment I - ISSP 1993

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a continuous programme of cross-national collaboration running annual surveys on topics important for the social sciences. The programme started in 1984 with four founding members - Australia, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States – and has now grown to almost 50 member countries from all over the world. As the surveys are designed for replication, they can be used for both, cross-national and cross-time comparisons. Each ISSP module focuses on a specific topic, which is repeated in regular time intervals. Please, consult the documentation for details on how the national ISSP surveys are fielded. The present study focuses on questions about the environment, climate change and environmental protection.<br>Obedience or self-determination as most important education
goal; private entrepreneurs as best possibility to solve economic
problems; responsibility of the government to reduce income differences
among the citizens; postmaterialism index; perceived belief in science
of the population; attitude to modern science (scale); expected
solution of environmental protection problems through science; too many
concerns for the future of the environment in comparison to prices and
provision of jobs; environmental destruction and modern life; equal
rights for animals and people; respect for nature as creation of God;
belief in God; exaggerated environmental sensitivity; judgement on the
contrast of environmental protection and economic growth; attitude to
animal experiments in pharmacology; nature as struggle for survival;
economic growth endangers the environment; readiness for higher prices
or higher taxes or to accept reductions in standard of living for the
benefit of protection of the environment; personal difficulties in
participation in environmental protection; self-classification of
participation in environmental protection; knowledge about manner of
functioning of antibiotics as destructive agent for bacteria or virus;
belief in astrology; understanding the theory of evolution;
artificially produced chemicals as cause for cancer; humans as party
responsible for radioactivity; knowledge of the danger of death from
radioactivity; knowledge about the dangers of radioactive waste from
nuclear power plants; knowledge about the cause for the greenhouse
effect; pesticides and chemicals in the production of food as causes
for cancer; humans as cause for extinction of animals and plants; cars
and air pollution; expected increase of illnesses in large cities as
result of air pollution; classification of nuclear power plants, air
pollution from industrial waste gases, pesticides and chemicals in
agriculture, water pollution and warming of the atmosphere through the
greenhouse effect as dangerous for the environment on the one hand as
well as for the respondent and his family on the other; preference for
regulation of environmental problems by the government, the population
or the economy; personal participation in recycling; purchase of
untreated fruits; frequency of doing without meat for moral and
environmental reasons; frequency of not using the car for environmental
reasons; membership in an environmental protection organization;
personal environmental political activities through participation in
signature lists, donations as well as participation in demonstrations;
social origins; employment in the public sector; time worked each week;
span of control; company size; personal unemployment in the last few
years and length of this unemployment; religiousness; self-assessment
of social class; union membership; party preference; party inclination;
housing situation and residential status; in some countries: ethnic
affiliation of respondent.

The following questions were also posed in Germany, Great Britain,
Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands: city size and residential
situation; characterization of heating costs as a bill clearly assigned
or divided by the number of renters; energy conservation habits with
heating and power consumption; water bill dependent on use; expected
shortage of oil or gas as well as a clear rise in temperatures through
the greenhouse effect in the next 20 years; advertising campaigns,
energy taxes, subsidies for improved insulation of buildings, rationing
of permitted energy use for a household as most reasonable measure of
the government to reduce use of energy; frequency per week of use of
motor vehicle; one or more vehicles in possession of household;
personal participation in purchase decision for a motor vehicle in the
last five years; environmentally compatible as criterion in purchase
decision; commuting times and motor vehicle used on the way to work;
alternative forms of transport in case one´s car is defective; most
important transport device for shopping; classification of personal
effort in doing without a vehicle; expected development of traffic
noise in the next few years; preferred government measures to reduce
traffic: advertising campaigns, continual increase in gasoline taxes,
environmental taxes on private vehicles or rationing gasoline for
private individuals; packaging as criterion in the purchase of
products; personal decision against purchase of a product with
excessive packaging; regular collection of recyclable materials at
residence of respondent; perceived shortage of garbage disposal sites
or garbage incinerating plants in the future; advertising campaigns,
garbage collection fees dependent on amount or regulations to reduce
packaging as preferred government measure to reduce domestic refuse;
the significance of environmental symbols in purchase decision;
advertising campaigns, environmental tax or restrictive laws as
preferred government measure for environmental protection;
self-classification of environmental friendliness; preference for
national or European responsibility for environmental protection;
assessment of the environmental friendliness of one´s own country in
comparison to the other countries of the European Community; adoption
of national environmental laws only under the condition that all EC
member countries enact the same laws.

The following questions were also posed in Australia, the Czech
Republic, Bulgaria, Philippines, Israel and Spain: judgement on the
power of the trade unions in the country; significance of trade unions
for the society of the country.