The Ecology Movement After Ten Years 
The reports of its death are greatly exaggerated 
by Betty Radcliffe and Luther P. Gerlach 
Is the environmental movement 
dead or alive? According to the re- 
sponse to Natural History's 1980 
“You and the Ecology Movement” 
questionnaire, published in the July 
issue, ecological problems continue to 
be of vital interest to our readers. 
Comparisons with responses to a simi- 
lar questionnaire published by Nat- 
ural History in 1970 suggest that the 
movement is very much alive, al- 
though it has taken some new direc- 
tions, influenced primarily by energy 
and inflation issues. Such comparisons 
must be made carefully, however, 
since only 7 percent of those who re- 
sponded to the 1980 questionnaire re- 
membered filling out the question- 
naire in 1970. 
Returns of the 1980 questionnaire 
came in from all fifty states, several 
U.S. territories, and several provinces 
of Canada, as well as from Brazil, 
Argentina, England, and a number of 
other countries. We received 3,941 
questionnaires in time for coding and 
processing — three-fourths as many as 
we received in 1970. This is a re- 
markable response, considering that 
in 1970 concern with ecological prob- 
lems seemed to be growing, while in 
1980 many wondered if the environ- 
mental movement had been aban- 
doned. 
What sort of sample did we analyze 
and how far can our findings be gen- 
eralized to the broader public? A pro- 
file of our admittedly self-selected 
sample appears in table 1. In con- 
sidering the findings of our survey, 
it is necessary to keep in mind that 
those who filled in the questionnaire 
are highly educated and relatively af- 
fluent and that the largest percentage 
of them are in professional, educa- 
tional, or social service occupations. 
The sample does not reflect Natural 
History's entire readership but rather 
that portion interested enough or, in 
some cases, angry enough to partici- 
pate in this survey. 
The population sample is broken 
down into subgroups, according to age, 
sex, occupation, and levels of educa- 
tion and income. Differences between 
the various subgroups did appear in 
the responses to most of our questions, 
but these were usually differences only 
of degree, particularly on questions 
concerning attitudes toward move- 
ments in support of environmental pro- 
tection, social justice, corporate re- 
sponsibility, and sound energy devel- 
opment and toward more private ac- 
tivities focused on individual change 
and personal growth. Where signifi- 
cant differences between subgroups 
did show up, we found that greater 
percentages of younger people, no 
more than twenty-nine years old, and 
women of all ages working in pro- 
fessional, educational, and social ser- 
vice jobs and earning modest incomes 
tended to take positions that chal- 
lenged the status quo, favoring both 
social and personal change. In con- 
trast, men over sixty earning high in- 
comes in engineering or technical oc- 
cupations tended to have more con- 
servative views. These findings were 
generally consistent with our 1970 re- 
sults. 
In both 1970 and 1980, many of 
the questions were designed to explore 
a broad range of cultural attitudes. 
The results of the two questionnaires, 
Table 1 
Profile of 1980 Sample 
Age 
% 
29 or younger 
26.9 
30 to 59 
56.6 
60 or older 
16.5 
Sex 
Male 
42.3 
Female 
57.2 
Level of Education 
Less than college degree 
24.7 
Four-year degree 
21.9 
Graduate training or 
advanced degree 
53.2 
Annual Income 
$14,999 and below 
22.5 
15,000 to 24,999 
26.8 
25,000 to 49,999 
34.4 
50,000 and above 
16.0 
Occupation 
Professional, Education, 
or Social Service 
39.9 
Business 
16.4 
Government, Military 
6.3 
Engineering, Technical 
8.5 
Homemaker, Retired, 
or Unemployed 
11.4 
12 
