The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) posits an inverted “U” shaped relationship between the affluence of a nation and the stress it places on the biophysical environment, with increases in affluence ...from low to moderate levels producing increased environmental stress but further increases eventually leading to a tipping point after which further affluence reduces environmental stress. We hypothesized that the same pattern might obtain for the relationship between affluence and the efficiency with which a nation produces human well-being compared to the stress it places on the environment. The environmental intensity of human well-being (EIWB) was represented as the ratio of a nation’s per capita ecological footprint to its average life expectancy at birth. Using panel data on 58 nations, we find that, on average, the relationship between gross domestic product per capita and EIWB is a U shape, the inverse of the Kuznets curve.
► Ecological intensity is a nation's ecological footprint divided by its life expectancy. ► In general, economic growth initially reduces intensity but ultimately increases it. ► Thus economic growth on its own will not alleviate sustainability problems.
Despite the scientific consensus that humans have dramatically altered the global environment, we have a limited knowledge of the specific forces driving those impacts. One key limitation to a ...precise understanding of anthropogenic impacts is the absence of a set of refined analytic tools. Here we assess the analytic utility of the well-known IPAT identity, the newly developed ImPACT identity, and their stochastic cousin, the STIRPAT model. We discuss the relationship between these three formulations, their similar conceptual underpinnings and their divergent uses. We then refine the STIRPAT model by developing the concept of ecological elasticity (EE). To illustrate the application of STIRPAT and EE, we compute the ecological elasticities of population, affluence and other factors for cross-national emissions of carbon dioxide (CO
2) from fossil fuel combustion and for the energy footprint, a composite measure comprising impacts from fossil fuel combustion, fuel wood, hydropower and nuclear power. Our findings suggest that population has a proportional effect (unitary elasticity) on CO
2 emissions and the energy footprint. Affluence monotonically increases both CO
2 emissions and the energy footprint. However, for the energy footprint the relationship between affluence and impact changes from inelastic to elastic as affluence increases, while for CO
2 emissions the relationship changes from elastic to inelastic. Climate appears to affect both measures of impact, with tropical nations having considerably lower impact than non-tropical nations, controlling for other factors. Finally, indicators of modernization (urbanization and industrialization) are associated with high impacts. We conclude that the STIRPAT model, augmented with measures of ecological elasticity, allows for a more precise specification of the sensitivity of environmental impacts to the forces driving them. Such specifications not only inform the basic science of environmental change, but also point to the factors that may be most responsive to policy.
•Countries with longer working hours consume more resources and emit more carbon.•Working hours’ contribution to GDP increases resource consumption and carbon emissions.•Net of GDP, longer working ...hours increase ecological footprints.
Many scholars and activists are now advocating a program of economic degrowth for developed countries in order to mitigate demands on the global environment. An increasingly prominent idea is that developed countries could achieve slower or zero economic growth in a socially sustainable way by reducing working hours. Research suggests that reduced working hours could contribute to sustainability by decreasing the scale of economic output and the environmental intensity of consumption patterns. Here, we investigate the effect of working hours on three environmental indicators: ecological footprint, carbon footprint, and carbon dioxide emissions. Using data for 1970–2007, our panel analysis of 29 high-income OECD countries indicates that working hours are significantly associated with greater environmental pressures and thus may be an attractive target for policies promoting environmental sustainability.
Since the turn of the 21st century, there has been a revival of interest in nuclear power. Two decades ago, the expansion of nuclear power in the United States was halted by widespread public ...opposition as well as rising costs and less than projected increases in demand for electricity. Can the renewed enthusiasm for nuclear power overcome its history of public resistance that has persisted for decades? We propose that attitudes toward nuclear power are a function of perceived risk, and that both attitudes and risk perceptions are a function of values, beliefs, and trust in the institutions that influence nuclear policy. Applying structural equation models to data from a U.S. national survey, we find that increased trust in the nuclear governance institutions reduces perceived risk of nuclear power and together higher trust and lower risk perceptions predict positive attitudes toward nuclear power. Trust in environmental institutions and perceived risks from global environmental problems do not predict attitudes toward nuclear power. Values do predict attitudes: individuals with traditional values have greater support for, while those with altruistic values have greater opposition to, nuclear power. Nuclear attitudes do not vary by gender, age, education, income, or political orientation, though nonwhites are more supportive than whites. These findings are consistent with, and provide an explanation for, a long series of public opinion polls showing public ambivalence toward nuclear power that persists even in the face of renewed interest for nuclear power in policy circles.
► The ontological status, i.e. to what extent risk exists in itself independent of any specific assessor, is analyzed. ► Risk defined based on events, consequences and uncertainties can be viewed as ...an objective (broadly inter-subjective) term. ► Here uncertainty is understood as “events/consequences being unknown”. ► For such definitions of risk we distinguish between risk as a concept and how risk is described (measured, expressed). ► Risk based on frequentist probabilities is a modelled, quantitative concept - its ontological status is situation dependent.
In this paper we review a set of frequently used risk definitions and analyze their ontological status, i.e. to what extent risk exists in itself independent of any specific assessor. According to some prevailing risk perspectives in the social sciences, risk exists as objective states of the world, but for other common risk perspectives the status of risk is not as clear, for example if risk is viewed as uncertainty about and severity of the consequences of an activity with respect to something that humans value. The principal aim of this paper is to contribute to a clarification of the issue in order to strengthen the foundations of the meaning of risk.
We developed a stochastic version of the Impact = Population· Affluence· Technology (IPAT) model to estimate the effects of population, affluence, and technology on national CO2 emissions. Our ...results suggest that, for population, there are diseconomies of scale for the largest nations that are not consistent with the assumption of direct proportionality (loglinear effects) common to most previous research. In contrast, the effects of affluence on CO2 emissions appear to reach a maximum at about $10,000 in per-capita gross domestic product and to decline at higher levels of affluence. These results confirm the general value of the IPAT model as a starting point for understanding the anthropogenic driving forces of global change and suggest that population and economic growth anticipated over the next decade will exacerbate greenhouse gas emissions.
The question of how to measure sustainability remains vexing. We approach the problem by noting that most theories of environmental impact assume that exploitation of the environment provides ...benefits to human well-being. However, this assumption has not been subject to much empirical discipline. We propose a model of Efficient Well-Being (EWEB) inspired by the Stochastic Frontier Production Models commonly used in economics. EWEB assesses a nation-state's efficiency in enhancing human well-being through the use of economic, natural and human resources. This approach shifts attention from the elusive question of whether a nation is sustainable to the more tractable question of how efficient a nation is in producing human well-being. We model human well-being as a function of physical, natural and human capital. In a preliminary test of this approach here we operationalize human well-being as life expectancy, flows of physical capital as gross domestic product per capita, flows of natural capital as the ecological footprint, and human capital as education. Using data from 135 nations, we find that controlling for physical and human capital, exploitation of the environment has no net effect on well-being. This suggests that improvements in well-being may be attainable without adverse effects on the environment. We also find that many nations could substantially improve their efficiency in using human and natural resources to generate well-being.
Recent research has conceptualized sustainability as the environmental efficiency of well-being (EWEB). This concept takes into account the benefits societies are able to produce from their demands ...on the environment. Research along these lines indicates that countries vary widely in the efficiency with which they transform the Earth’s resources into well-being. Here, we take up this finding as a puzzle to be explained. We construct a new measure of EWEB using the ecological footprint per capita (a measure of environmental consumption) and average life satisfaction (a measure of subjective well-being). We draw hypotheses from political economy, modernization, and sustainable consumption theories in the environmental social sciences. Using full information maximum likelihood estimation, we test the effects of climate, political, economic, and social factors on EWEB with a sample of 105 countries. Key findings include a negative quadratic effect of economic development on EWEB, a negative effect of income inequality, and a positive effect of social capital.
Growing evidence demonstrating clear threats to the sustainability of the ecosystems supporting human societies has given rise to a variety of sociological theories of human-environment interactions. ...These environmental impact theories fall into three general perspectives: human ecology, modernization, and political economy. These theories, however, have not been empirically tested in a common analytic framework. Here, a framework that relies on ecological principles is adopted and modified. Using a revised stochastic formulation of that framework and the most comprehensive measure of environmental impact to date-the ecological footprint-the factors driving the environmental impacts of societies are assessed. The overall findings support the claims of human ecologists, partially support the claims of political economists, and contradict the claims of modernization theorists. Basic material conditions, such as population, economic production, urbanization, and geographical factors all affect the environment and explain the vast majority of cross-national variation in environmental impact. Factors derived from neo-liberal modernization theory, such as political freedom, civil liberties, and state environmentalism have no effect on impacts. Taken together, these findings suggest societies cannot be sanguine about achieving sustainability via a continuation of current trends in economic growth and institutional change.
To investigate the hypothesis that increased interferon-γ (IFN-γ) expression is associated with conjunctival goblet cell loss in subjects with tear dysfunction.
Goblet cell density (GCD) was measured ...in impression cytology from the temporal bulbar conjunctiva, and gene expression was measured in cytology samples from the nasal bulbar conjunctiva obtained from 68 subjects, including normal control, meibomian gland disease (MGD), non-Sjögren syndrome (non-SSATD)-, and Sjögren syndrome (SSATD)-associated aqueous tear deficiency. Gene expression was evaluated by real-time PCR. Tear meniscus height (TMH) was measured by optical coherence tomography. Fluorescein and lissamine green dye staining evaluated corneal and conjunctival disease, respectively. Between-group mean differences and correlation coefficients were calculated.
Compared to control, IFN-γ expression was significantly higher in both ATD groups, and its receptor was higher in SSATD. Expression of IL-13 and its receptor was similar in all groups. Goblet cell density was lower in the SSATD group; expression of MUC5AC mucin was lower and cornified envelope precursor small proline-rich region (SPRR)-2G higher in both ATD groups. Interferon-γ transcript number was inversely correlated with GCD (r = -0.37, P < 0.04) and TMH (r = -0.37, P = 0.02), and directly correlated with lissamine green staining (r = 0.51, P < 0.001) and SPRR-2G expression (r = 0.32, P < 0.05).
Interferon-γ expression in the conjunctiva was higher in aqueous deficiency and correlated with goblet cell loss and severity of conjunctival disease. These results support findings of animal and culture studies showing that IFN-γ reduces conjunctival goblet cell number and mucin production.
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