Sandra T. Marquart-Pyatt

Political ideology and views about climate change in the European Union

ABSTRACT There is a strong political divide on climate change in the US general public, with Liberals and Democrats expressing greater belief in and concern about climate change than Conservatives and Republicans. Recent studies find a similar though less pronounced divide in other countries. Its leadership in international climate policy making warrants extending this line of research to the European Union (EU). The extent of a left–right ideological divide on climate change views is examined via Eurobarometer survey data on the publics of 25 EU countries before the 2008 global financial crisis, the 2009 ‘climategate’ controversy and COP-15 in Copenhagen, and an increase in organized climate change denial campaigns. Citizens on the left consistently reported stronger belief in climate change and support for action to mitigate it than did citizens on the right in 14 Western European countries. There was no such ideological divide in 11 former Communist countries, likely due to the low political salience of climate change and the differing meaning of left–right identification in these countries.

Concern for the Environment Among General Publics: A Cross-National Study

Concern for the environment has been noted in recent decades as a global phenomenon that is present among general publics in regions around the world. Though a topic of emerging interest, at present, assessments of environmental concern cross-nationally do not provide definitive evidence as to whether similar levels of environmental concern are identifiable across mass publics and whether its underpinnings are similar across national contexts. This research compares concern for the environment across 15 countries, examining the role of measurement cross-nationally. I demonstrate that different rankings of general publics can be distinguished with regard to different measures of environmental concern. I also examine demographic factors typically associated with the expression of environmental concern to determine their cross-national comparability. Results demonstrate that the measurement of environmental concern matters, both in terms of describing its composition in different countries and in identifying its underpinnings in this sample of countries.

Understanding Public Opinion on Climate Change: A Call for Research

There is strong scientific consensus concerning the reality of anthropogenic climate change (CC) and its potential consequences.1 However, increased confidence among scientists has not translated into a public consensus within the United States.2 Indeed, numerous polls indicate a decline in public acceptance of CC over the past two to three years (although some polls show a slight uptick since mid-2010). For example, Gallup Polls, trends for which appear in the figure here, show substantial declines from 2008 to 2010 in the percentages of Americans believing that global warming is already occurring (61 percent to 50 percent); that it is due more to human activities than natural changes (58 percent to 50 percent); and that most scientists believe it is occurring (65 percent to 52 percent).3 Even prior to the recent decline in Americans’ acceptance of CC, cross-national surveys consistently found that the U.S. public was less likely to believe that CC is occurring and poses a problem than do citizens in most other wealthy nations.4 This uniquely high level of skepticism and the recent decline in public acceptance of CC are a challenge to the scientific community and call for increased examination of the factors influencing public opinion on CC. Although UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC Opinion on Climate Change:

Explaining Environmental Activism Across Countries

This article tests a model of pathways to environmental activism across 16 nations using structural equation modeling. Given previous research, a model is proposed articulating individual resources, knowledge, awareness of consequences, attitudes, willingness to contribute, and efficacy as factors influencing environmental activism. The mediating effect of willingness to make environmental contributions is investigated in detail based on expectations from prior studies. Results from analysis of International Social Survey Program data are broadly supportive of the model across 16 countries individually, as education, awareness of consequences, and attitudes combined affect environmental activism. Moreover, mediating tests demonstrate a prominent but not exclusive role of willingness to contribute in promoting activism across nations, uncovering relationships that are masked in previous cross-national research.

A behavioural measure of environmental decision-making for social surveys

There is great benefit in using measures of environmentally significant behaviour – rather than just behavioural intentions or self-reported behaviour – if we are to advance our understanding of the individual and structural factors that influence environmental decision-making. Along these lines, to supplement the use of behavioural intention and self-reported behaviour measures in environmental decision-making research, we identify and validate a simple measure of one form of environmentally significant behaviour: financial support for environmental movement organizations. Using the values-beliefs-norms theoretical framework, we conducted an experiment to examine the performance of this measure of actual behaviour. This behavioural measure meets multiple dimensions of validity – including face, concurrent criterion-related, and construct – as a measure of environmentally significant behaviour in environmental decision-making research. As would be expected, we find that actual donations are smaller than hypothetical donations; hypothetical donations overestimate what would actually be donated by approximately 27%. Also, while environmental beliefs better predict hypothetical donation and willingness to act, key values measures (i.e. biospheric altruism and self-interest) better predict actual donation. We suggest that scholars consider using actual behavioural measures such as the one we test here in future scholarship on environmental decision-making.

Linking watershed-scale stream health and socioeconomic indicators with spatial clustering and structural equation modeling

In this study, spatial clustering techniques were used in combination with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to characterize the relationships between in-stream health indicators and socioeconomic measures of communities. The study area is the Saginaw River Watershed in Michigan. Four measures of stream health were considered: the Index of Biological Integrity, Hilsenhoff Biotic Index, Family Index of Biological Integrity, and number of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera taxa. The stream health indicators were predicted using nine socioeconomic variables that capture vulnerability in population. The results of spatial clustering showed that incorporating clustering configuration improves the model prediction. A total of 510 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFAs) and 85 multivariate regression models were developed for each spatial cluster within the watershed and compared with the model performance without spatial clustering (at the watershed level). In general, watershed level CFAs outperformed cluster level CFAs, while the reverse was true for the regression models. Relationships between stream health and socioeconomic measures were studied.Spatial clustering techniques and Structural Equation Modeling were integrated.Spatial clustering improved regression model prediction.Confirmatory Factor Analysis performed well at the watershed level.

Does "Free Sampling" Enhance the Value of Public Goods?

This study investigates whether ‘free sampling’ enhances the value of public goods. Using data from a unique field experiment, we find that the WTP premium effect associated with a brief opportunity to consume a local public good for free is relatively small and temporary. It therefore may not be cost effective to offer free-participation incentives for public goods.

Environmental Trust: A Cross-Region and Cross-Country Study

ABSTRACT Environmental issues such as pollution and access to clean water and concerns like awareness of environmental conditions are pressing global challenges. Despite its importance, however, our understanding of how environmental views connect with trust is understudied. To address this gap in the literature, this article examines the composition, level, and distribution of environmental trust as a latent variable and the factors shaping it. Both cross-region and cross-country comparisons are conducted using structural equation modeling and a unique set of items only available in the 2000 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data. Important similarities are shown across regions, yet findings for 26 countries individually reveal intriguing differences. Analyses by region and by country advance our collective understanding regarding the presence of universal dynamics shaping environmental trust.

Environmental Sustainability: A Closer Look at Factors Influencing National Ecological Footprints

This article investigates the driving forces of the ecological footprint (EF) and its six subcomponents to examine similarities in sources using a cross-national data set of more than 100 countries. Expectations from environmental impact, world-systems, and world-polity perspectives are incorporated in a model examining the institutional-level attributes driving national-level imprints on the biophysical environment. Results suggest that the structural factors driving ecological footprints differ across the EFs subcomponents and are similar for only one of its pieces, carbon uptake. Specifying alternative sets of predictors from previous research for three EF subcomponents offers support for a model specifying a set of simultaneous equations or seemingly unrelated regression models. These underlying processes, though driven by different structural influences, are linked with one another for the cross-national sample of countries examined here.

It is not just scale that matters: Political trust in Utah

Abstract While the traditional assumption is residents have more confidence in governments that are closest to them, empirical studies supporting this claim remain limited. In this study, we test the claim that ‘small is beautiful’ by comparing citizen reactions to similar types of decisions affecting Utah residents made by political leaders at different levels of governance. Our primary goal is to test the claim that trust is higher for local governments. Our secondary goal is to examine potential determinants of trust and whether they vary across levels of governance. The central finding from this study is that, despite claims to the contrary, citizens are not necessarily more trusting of government closer to the people and higher levels of government can engender as much trust as more local levels of government. Our findings also emphasize that regardless of the level of governance considered, interrelations exist between residents’ views of procedural justice and trust in these officials.