A contaminated river and a polluted sky are proof that environmentalism isn't just for the rich any more, say sociologists.

Obviously it never was, in many countries.  In the developed world, people in the country actually care more about the environment than rich urbanites, but in the developing world the practical takes precedence over policy.  The poor can't afford to protect the environment.

A new survey says that may be true in the country but in the city it is another matter. People living in China's cities who say they've been exposed to environmental harm are more likely to be green, recycling or reusing grocery bag.  It also says the poor would sacrifice economic gain to protect their environment.

Sociologists have analyzed surveys of environmental attitudes for years, bu it's behavior that ultimately counts - little is known about how people perceive and respond to personal exposure to environmental harm. They used China's General Social Survey of 2003, which was the first nationwide survey to address this issue. Some 5,000 urban respondents were asked specifically about their environmental behavior -- if they sorted their garbage to separate recyclables, re-used plastic bags, talked about environmental issues with family or friends, participated in environmental education programs, volunteered in environmental organizations or took part in environmental litigation.

The people taking the survey were allowed to define environmental harm for themselves.

The authors found that actions that resulted in direct results such as environmental litigation were the ones that people most likely turned to after being exposed to environmental harm. Other actions, such as trash recycling programs, may produce indirect results. However, people's views about the environment are most likely to inspire them to participate in environmental behaviors if those behaviors are ones that they can control, such as re-using plastic bags and talking about environmental issues.

"We feel it's a major contribution to provide empirical evidence that environmental harm is one of the most important predictors of environmental behavior," said Xiaodong Chen, who conducted the study while working on his doctorate at the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability at Michigan State University. "Environmental harm could be more important than economic status in predicting environmental behavior. If people are affected by degraded environmental conditions, then even people with low economic status still may sacrifice some economic benefit in order to protect the environment."