Estwald, here's another example. Up until the 1960s the Netherlands and the US had essentially the same beliefs and ideas about premarital sex. Then the two cultures diverged dramatically and there's no indication whatsoever that this had anything to do with environmental conditions.
"According to Amy Schalet, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, in the late 1960s the Dutch — like Americans — roundly disapproved of premarital sex. The sexual revolution transformed attitudes in both countries, but, whereas American parents and policymakers responded by treating teen sex as a health crisis, the Dutch went another way: They consciously embraced it as natural, though requiring proper guidance. Their government made pelvic exams, birth control and abortion free to anyone under 22, with no requirements for parental consent."
I can see how on a very macro-level that environment impacts how a culture develops, but there are just too many concrete examples of that not being the case for it to be such a sweeping generalization.
