Green versus Brown: Explaining Environmental Commitment in Australia

Although there have been several studies of the growth in environmental group membership, analyzing the link between environmentalism, value change, and social location, few studies have attempted to explain potential environmental commitment or specific types of environmental beliefs as motivations for participation in such groups. Multivariate methods on 3 pooled surveys conducted in Australia between 1990 and 1996 explored the sources of commitment. Committed members have stronger postmaterialist and secular values than ordinary members and are more likely to come from professional occupations. Perhaps most significant, committed members are motivated by a strong sense of the urgency of "green" (i.e., global) as opposed to "brown" (i.e., local) environmental concerns. The results point to a shift in the bases of environmental commitment, away from social location and to "green" environmental issues. Although issues are in principle an insecure basis for political mobilization, the inability of national governments to solve global environmental problems suggests that "green" rather than "brown" environmental concerns will provide a continuing basis from which environmental groups can recruit and mobilize.