Kyle W. Knight

Public awareness and perception of climate change: a quantitative cross-national study

Research on the extent and sources of international differences in climate change awareness and perception among general publics could improve understanding of the opportunities and challenges of formulating politically feasible and effective international climate policies. However, few studies have attempted to explain cross-national variation in climate change public opinion. This study builds on the relatively small body of existing research on this topic by investigating several cross-national predictors of public awareness and perception of climate change with ordinary least squares (OLS) and robust regression models using national-level data from the 2007–2008 and 2010 Gallup World Polls, which provide the largest available international datasets on climate change public opinion. The following results were most consistent across the surveys and models: 1) awareness of climate change is greater in countries that are wealthier and more highly educated, and is not influenced by political orientation or vulnerability; 2) perceived risk is greater in countries that are wealthier, left-leaning, and more vulnerable to climate change, and not affected by unemployment; 3) perceived human cause is greater in countries that are wealthier, left-leaning, more vulnerable, and more highly educated. The effects of education on perceived risk and unemployment rate on awareness and perceived human cause were not consistent.

Organic Agriculture as Environmental Reform: A Cross-National Investigation

Organic agriculture is a prime case for studying social processes of environmental reform. We empirically assess the environmental consequences of organic agriculture using cross-national data and find that greater area of organic agriculture land is associated with lower fertilizer consumption while larger average organic farm size is associated with higher fertilizer consumption. Then we investigate the cross-national factors influencing organic land area and average farm size. We test hypotheses derived from three theoretical perspectives: neoliberal modernization (NLM) theories, international political economy (IPE) theories, and world polity theory. In support of NLM theories, we find that agricultural export intensity is positively associated with organic agriculture land area. In support of IPE theories, we find that both economic development and agricultural export intensity have significant, positive effects on average organic farm size. World polity theory is supported with a positive association between number of environmental international nongovernmental organizations and organic land.

Wealth Inequality and Carbon Emissions in High-income Countries:

This study contributes to the emerging literature on connections between climate change and economic inequality by investigating the relationship between domestic wealth inequality and consumption-based carbon emissions for 26 high-income countries from 2000 to 2010. Results of the two-way fixed effects longitudinal models indicate that the effect of wealth inequality, measured as the wealth share of the top decile, on per capita emissions in high-income countries is consistently positive and relatively stable over the time period. This finding is consistent with political economy theories arguing that the concentration of political and economic power that accompanies the concentration of wealth plays an important role in increasing environmental degradation and preventing proenvironmental actions.