Towards Climate Justice: Examining Concern for Climate Change in Developed, Transitioning and Developing Countries
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Towards Climate Justice: Examining Concern for Climate Change in Developed, Transitioning and Developing Countries Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Running, Katrina Marie Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 29/09/2021 21:26:28 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/297009 1 TOWARDS CLIMATE JUSTICE: EXAMINING CONCERN FOR CLIMATE CHANGE IN DEVELOPED, TRANSITIONING AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES By Katrina Running _______________________ A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF SOCIOLOGY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2013 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Katrina Running, titled Towards Climate Justice: Examining Concern for Climate Change in Developed, Transitioning and Developing Countries and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________________________________________________________ Date: (May 22, 2013) Lane Kenworthy _______________________________________________________________________ Date: (May 22, 2013) Don Grant _______________________________________________________________________ Date: (May 22, 2013) Robin Stryker Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: (May 22, 2013) Dissertation Director: Lane Kenworthy 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Katrina Running 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my friends, family and committee members for their intellectual and moral support, especially Chris Zarzana, for cooking many meals to sustain me while writing, and Sophie Zarzana, for frequently wandering through my office to meow-shout encouragements. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………7 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………...……………………9 LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………………………..14 PRESENT STUDY………………………………………………………………………29 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………..…33 APPENDIX A: EXAMINING ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN IN DEVELOPED, TRANSITIONING AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Abstract…………………………………………………………………………..41 Introduction………………………………………………………………………42 Theory and Hypotheses………………………………………………………..…45 Data and Methods………………………………………………………………..48 Results…………………………………………………………………………....55 Discussion………………………………………………………………………..61 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….67 References………………………………………………………………….…….70 List of Figures and Tables…….……………………………...………………….74 APPENDIX B: WORLD CITIZENSHIP AND CONCERN FOR GLOBAL WARMING: BUILDING THE CASE FOR A STRONG INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY Abstract……………………………………..……………………………………98 Introduction………………………………..…………………………….……….99 Theoretical Argument……………………….…………………………….……103 Data and Methods………………………………………………………………111 Results………………………………………………………………………..…117 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS—continued Discussion and Conclusions……………………………………………………119 References………………………………………………………………………125 List of Figures and Tables….…………………………………………………..131 APPENDIX C: TOWARDS CLIMATE JUSTICE: HOW DO THE MOST VULNERABLE WEIGH ENVIRONMENT-ECONOMY TRADE-OFFS? Abstract………………………………………………………...……………….136 Introduction………………………………………………..……………………137 Literature Review……………………………………………………………….141 Data and Measures……………………………………………………………...147 Results…………………………………………………………………………..155 Discussion………………………………………………………………………159 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...…163 References………………………………………………………………………166 List of Figures and Tables……………………………….…………………..…173 7 ABSTRACT This dissertation is a comparative international study of attitudes towards climate change. Using multilevel models, individual level data from the 2005-2008 wave of the World Values Survey, and country level data from the 2010 Climate Risk Index and the World Bank, this research identifies the factors associated with concern for global warming and support for various environmental policies and behaviors in economically developed, transitioning, and developing countries. The first paper addresses an ongoing debate in environmental sociology about the extent to which concern for environmental problems is a result of the objective deterioration of environmental conditions or subjective values among environmentally-oriented individuals. Findings indicate that a country’s recent experience with climate-related environmental disasters has little to no effect on concern for global warming. Some support is found for the subjective values explanation, especially in countries at the most advanced stage of economic development. The second paper frames climate change as an asymmetrical social dilemma and tests whether four distinct citizenship identities are associated with the odds an individual considers global warming a very serious problem. This study finds that identifying as world citizens and autonomous individuals increases the odds an individual judges global warming very serious, while identifying as national citizens or local community members has no relationship with evaluations of global warming. The third paper examines the impact of numerous measures of security/vulnerability on individual willingness to make environment-economy trade-offs. The data reveal that higher household incomes, residing in a country with higher per capita GDP, and higher rates of adult literacy are 8 positively associated with prioritizing environmental protection over economic growth. However, residents of economically developing countries (or countries designated Non- Annex I by the Kyoto Protocol) are also much more likely to express willingness to donate personal income for the protection of the environment compared to residents of developed (Annex I) countries. The findings from these three studies have implications for sociological research on the relationship between economic inequality and environmental attitudes, the conditions under which international cooperation on climate is more or less likely, and the quest for climate justice. 9 INTRODUCTION Climate change and inequality are complex, interrelated problems that will affect the human experience in the next century. Climate change is shifting the location of arable lands, causing massive droughts, wildfires, and flooding, and intensifying the frequency and severity of storms. The World Health Organization (2011) estimated that climate change is now responsible for about 150,000 deaths each year; a newer report by the Climate Vulnerability Monitor estimated this number at more than 400,000 annual deaths, along with thousands of displacements (Climate Vulnerability Forum 2012). Inequality, both within and between countries, affects the adaptive capacity of individuals faced with climate-related disruptions. Overall inequality is increasing in the Global North, particularly as the richest 5 percent of households take home an ever-increasing percentage of the available income (Levine 2012). However, the rapid recent growth of previously poor countries like China and India has slightly decreased global inequality since its peak at the turn of the 21st century (Milanovic 2012). Still, the best predictor of our fiscal security remains the relative position in the global economic hierarchy of the country into which we are born (Milanovic 2012). Another dimension of global inequality is environmental inequality. One form of environmental inequality is “environmentally unequal exchange,” wherein raw natural resources from countries all over the world become increasingly concentrated in the wealthier countries, while the poorer countries bear most of the environmental impacts of extracting them. The original concept of environmentally unequal exchange was developed by Stephen Bunker (1985) in his book Underdeveloping the Amazon: 10 Extraction, Unequal Exchange, and the Failure of the Modern State, to describe how countries in the Amazon Basin were rapidly selling off their tropical rainforests to wealthier countries while leaving behind environmental destruction. More recently, this concept has been applied to the problem of climate change to bring attention to the fact that while it is the rich, industrialized countries