Sociology developed in the context of a highly anthropocentric, dominant western worldview (DWW)... more Sociology developed in the context of a highly anthropocentric, dominant western worldview (DWW) that saw humans as separate from the rest of nature and took the abundance of resources, growth, and progress for granted. Sociology adopted this optimistic worldview, and added unique disciplinary characteristics—especially Durkheim’s dictum that social facts should not be explained by psychological, biological, or environmental factors—, which further encouraged a disregard for the bio-physical environment. By the mid-twentieth century, sociology was premised on a disciplinary paradigm that viewed modern industrial societies as “exempt” from ecological constraints. This human exemptionalism paradigm (HEP) made sociology slow to see the societal significance of growing evidence of pollution, resource scarcity, and other ecological problems. However, growing recognition of these problems stimulated the field of environmental sociology and a gradual recognition of the ecosystem-dependence of modern societies, giving rise to a new ecological paradigm (NEP). First, we present the basic assumptions of the DWW, HEP, and NEP, and then we discuss the relationship between the HEP-NEP distinction and the traditional sociological rifts such as order vs. conflict, in order to demonstrate the utility of the NEP in an era of growing ecological constraints.
ABSTRACT Scholars who study the failure of climate change policy in the United States tend to foc... more ABSTRACT Scholars who study the failure of climate change policy in the United States tend to focus on the mechanics of denial and the coordinated efforts of political operatives, conservative think tanks, and partisan news outlets to cast doubt on what has become overwhelming scientific consensus. In contrast, we address a factor that has been understudied until now – the role of climate change advocacy in the U.S. Congress. Using quantitative text analysis on a corpus of floor speeches published in the Congressional Record between 1996 and 2015, we find notable differences in the language partisans use. Democrats communicate in ways that are message-based, emphasizing the weight of scientific evidence, while Republicans tend towards a softer, cue-based narrative based on anecdotes and storytelling. We end with a discussion of what climate change advocates can hope to accomplish through the ‘politics of talk,’ especially in an age of heightened polarization.
Existing literature on climate change beliefs in the US suggests that partisan polarization beget... more Existing literature on climate change beliefs in the US suggests that partisan polarization begets climate change polarization and that the climate beliefs of those on both sides of the partisan divide are firmly held and invariable. Here, we use data from a large panel survey of Oklahoma residents administered quarterly from 2014 through 2018 to challenge this perspective. Contrary to the expectation of rough symmetry in partisan polarization on climate change, we find that partisans on the political right have much more unstable beliefs about climate change than partisans on the left. An important implication is that if climate beliefs are well anchored on the left, but less so on the right, the latter are more susceptible to change. We interpret this to suggest that, despite polarizing elite rhetoric, public beliefs about climate change maintain the potential to shift towards broader acceptance and a perceived need for action.
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001
The contemporary environmental movement in the USA is one of the most influential and enduring so... more The contemporary environmental movement in the USA is one of the most influential and enduring social movements of our time. It builds heavily upon the historical legacy of the progressive conservation movement at the beginning of the twentieth century, which included conservationists interested in natural resource management and preservationists interested in the protection of natural areas. Modern environmentalism began in the 1960s and 1970s and has grown to become a popular movement that encompasses a diverse range of organizations, tactics, and ideologies. The current stage of environmentalism includes radical environmentalists, environmental justice activists, and grassroots groups, as well as large national organizations such as the Sierra Club; it incorporates issues of social as well as interspecies equity. Environmentalism has also spread around the world but, because of its relative success, is engendering increasing opposition. This essay traces the growth and diversification of modern environmentalism in the USA, briefly reviews the growth of environmentalism worldwide, and then examines the major stages of contemporary environmental activism: conservationism, environmentalism, and ecologism.
Green globe yearbook of international co-operation on …
Conventional wisdom holds that concern for the environment is limited to residents of the wealthy... more Conventional wisdom holds that concern for the environment is limited to residents of the wealthy industrialized nations of the Northern hemisphere, as those who live in the poorer, Southern nations are assumed to be too preoccupied with economic survival to be able to worry ...
The author discusses his collaboration with William Catton that led to several early articles aim... more The author discusses his collaboration with William Catton that led to several early articles aimed at providing an intellectual foundation for a field of environmental sociology. The differing backgrounds and interests they each brought to their collaboration and the context in which it developed are outlined, along with the author's assessment of the major goals of their key publications. The growth of environmental sociology and increased disciplinary attention to ecological problems, spurred by the growing societal salience of such problems, suggests that sociology has begun to shed the human exemptionalist paradigm that dominated the discipline when the field of environmental sociology was launched.
Abstract Few studies have investigated the impact of climate beliefs on everyday behavioral choic... more Abstract Few studies have investigated the impact of climate beliefs on everyday behavioral choices with significant climate impacts, such as the choice of travel mode. In addition, there is a lack of studies combining approaches from different disciplines. We develop a framework that integrates considerations of infrastructure and institutional and social-psychological processes and apply it to the choice of a conventional internal combustion-engine vehicle (ICV) for commuting. We use structural equation modeling on data from a representative survey of Norwegian commuters (N = 2607) to estimate direct and indirect effects on these choices. We find that ICV use is determined by physical infrastructure, car ownership and social norms supporting this behavior and indirectly by refuting or doubting scientific evidence on climate change. Many of these effects are mediated through beliefs favoring ICV use. Notably, ICV use is strongly supported by social norms, reflecting a long process of integrating ICV use in people’s lives as a part of normal everyday behavior that is rarely questioned. In other words, the use of a conventional ICV for commuting has been institutionalized in Norway as in other developed economies. As a result, changing to more climate-friendly commuting behavior is a challenge. We conclude with some reflections on how to encourage this transition and how we can build on this study to monitor behavior changes.
published in 1978, has become a widely used measure of proenvironmental orientation. This article... more published in 1978, has become a widely used measure of proenvironmental orientation. This article develops a revised NEP Scale designed to improve upon the original one in several respects: (1) It taps a wider range of facets of an ecological worldview, (2) It offers a balanced set of pro-and anti-NEP items, and (3) It avoids outmoded terminology. The new scale, termed the New Ecological Paradigm Scale, consists of 15 items. Results of a 1990 Washington State survey suggest that the items can be treated as an internally consistent summated rating scale and also indicate a modest growth in pro-NEP responses among Washington residents over the 14 years since the original study. When environmental issues achieved a prominent position on our nation's policy agenda in the 1970s, the major problems receiving attention tended to be air
Social movement scholars argue that movements within the same social movement family represent an... more Social movement scholars argue that movements within the same social movement family represent an ideologically coherent social force driven by an overarching master frame. Yet this claim has thus far been poorly documented. Analyzing public opinion data from a nationally representative April 2000 Gallup Poll, we find substantial evidence of a progressive social movement ideology centered around the extension of rights within the American public, as support for individual movements within this family is highly interrelated. Adherents to this progressive social movement ideology are drawn from self-identified political Liberals and Democrats, the more highly educated, women, younger, and less religious adults. We argue that public opinion research should be seen as a valuable complement to existing case-based social movement scholarship.
Go to AGRIS search. Extension Bulletin - Washington State University, Cooperative Extension Servi... more Go to AGRIS search. Extension Bulletin - Washington State University, Cooperative Extension Service (Jan 1985). Washington energy activists view energy issues. ...
Sociology developed in the context of a highly anthropocentric, dominant western worldview (DWW)... more Sociology developed in the context of a highly anthropocentric, dominant western worldview (DWW) that saw humans as separate from the rest of nature and took the abundance of resources, growth, and progress for granted. Sociology adopted this optimistic worldview, and added unique disciplinary characteristics—especially Durkheim’s dictum that social facts should not be explained by psychological, biological, or environmental factors—, which further encouraged a disregard for the bio-physical environment. By the mid-twentieth century, sociology was premised on a disciplinary paradigm that viewed modern industrial societies as “exempt” from ecological constraints. This human exemptionalism paradigm (HEP) made sociology slow to see the societal significance of growing evidence of pollution, resource scarcity, and other ecological problems. However, growing recognition of these problems stimulated the field of environmental sociology and a gradual recognition of the ecosystem-dependence of modern societies, giving rise to a new ecological paradigm (NEP). First, we present the basic assumptions of the DWW, HEP, and NEP, and then we discuss the relationship between the HEP-NEP distinction and the traditional sociological rifts such as order vs. conflict, in order to demonstrate the utility of the NEP in an era of growing ecological constraints.
ABSTRACT Scholars who study the failure of climate change policy in the United States tend to foc... more ABSTRACT Scholars who study the failure of climate change policy in the United States tend to focus on the mechanics of denial and the coordinated efforts of political operatives, conservative think tanks, and partisan news outlets to cast doubt on what has become overwhelming scientific consensus. In contrast, we address a factor that has been understudied until now – the role of climate change advocacy in the U.S. Congress. Using quantitative text analysis on a corpus of floor speeches published in the Congressional Record between 1996 and 2015, we find notable differences in the language partisans use. Democrats communicate in ways that are message-based, emphasizing the weight of scientific evidence, while Republicans tend towards a softer, cue-based narrative based on anecdotes and storytelling. We end with a discussion of what climate change advocates can hope to accomplish through the ‘politics of talk,’ especially in an age of heightened polarization.
Existing literature on climate change beliefs in the US suggests that partisan polarization beget... more Existing literature on climate change beliefs in the US suggests that partisan polarization begets climate change polarization and that the climate beliefs of those on both sides of the partisan divide are firmly held and invariable. Here, we use data from a large panel survey of Oklahoma residents administered quarterly from 2014 through 2018 to challenge this perspective. Contrary to the expectation of rough symmetry in partisan polarization on climate change, we find that partisans on the political right have much more unstable beliefs about climate change than partisans on the left. An important implication is that if climate beliefs are well anchored on the left, but less so on the right, the latter are more susceptible to change. We interpret this to suggest that, despite polarizing elite rhetoric, public beliefs about climate change maintain the potential to shift towards broader acceptance and a perceived need for action.
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001
The contemporary environmental movement in the USA is one of the most influential and enduring so... more The contemporary environmental movement in the USA is one of the most influential and enduring social movements of our time. It builds heavily upon the historical legacy of the progressive conservation movement at the beginning of the twentieth century, which included conservationists interested in natural resource management and preservationists interested in the protection of natural areas. Modern environmentalism began in the 1960s and 1970s and has grown to become a popular movement that encompasses a diverse range of organizations, tactics, and ideologies. The current stage of environmentalism includes radical environmentalists, environmental justice activists, and grassroots groups, as well as large national organizations such as the Sierra Club; it incorporates issues of social as well as interspecies equity. Environmentalism has also spread around the world but, because of its relative success, is engendering increasing opposition. This essay traces the growth and diversification of modern environmentalism in the USA, briefly reviews the growth of environmentalism worldwide, and then examines the major stages of contemporary environmental activism: conservationism, environmentalism, and ecologism.
Green globe yearbook of international co-operation on …
Conventional wisdom holds that concern for the environment is limited to residents of the wealthy... more Conventional wisdom holds that concern for the environment is limited to residents of the wealthy industrialized nations of the Northern hemisphere, as those who live in the poorer, Southern nations are assumed to be too preoccupied with economic survival to be able to worry ...
The author discusses his collaboration with William Catton that led to several early articles aim... more The author discusses his collaboration with William Catton that led to several early articles aimed at providing an intellectual foundation for a field of environmental sociology. The differing backgrounds and interests they each brought to their collaboration and the context in which it developed are outlined, along with the author's assessment of the major goals of their key publications. The growth of environmental sociology and increased disciplinary attention to ecological problems, spurred by the growing societal salience of such problems, suggests that sociology has begun to shed the human exemptionalist paradigm that dominated the discipline when the field of environmental sociology was launched.
Abstract Few studies have investigated the impact of climate beliefs on everyday behavioral choic... more Abstract Few studies have investigated the impact of climate beliefs on everyday behavioral choices with significant climate impacts, such as the choice of travel mode. In addition, there is a lack of studies combining approaches from different disciplines. We develop a framework that integrates considerations of infrastructure and institutional and social-psychological processes and apply it to the choice of a conventional internal combustion-engine vehicle (ICV) for commuting. We use structural equation modeling on data from a representative survey of Norwegian commuters (N = 2607) to estimate direct and indirect effects on these choices. We find that ICV use is determined by physical infrastructure, car ownership and social norms supporting this behavior and indirectly by refuting or doubting scientific evidence on climate change. Many of these effects are mediated through beliefs favoring ICV use. Notably, ICV use is strongly supported by social norms, reflecting a long process of integrating ICV use in people’s lives as a part of normal everyday behavior that is rarely questioned. In other words, the use of a conventional ICV for commuting has been institutionalized in Norway as in other developed economies. As a result, changing to more climate-friendly commuting behavior is a challenge. We conclude with some reflections on how to encourage this transition and how we can build on this study to monitor behavior changes.
published in 1978, has become a widely used measure of proenvironmental orientation. This article... more published in 1978, has become a widely used measure of proenvironmental orientation. This article develops a revised NEP Scale designed to improve upon the original one in several respects: (1) It taps a wider range of facets of an ecological worldview, (2) It offers a balanced set of pro-and anti-NEP items, and (3) It avoids outmoded terminology. The new scale, termed the New Ecological Paradigm Scale, consists of 15 items. Results of a 1990 Washington State survey suggest that the items can be treated as an internally consistent summated rating scale and also indicate a modest growth in pro-NEP responses among Washington residents over the 14 years since the original study. When environmental issues achieved a prominent position on our nation's policy agenda in the 1970s, the major problems receiving attention tended to be air
Social movement scholars argue that movements within the same social movement family represent an... more Social movement scholars argue that movements within the same social movement family represent an ideologically coherent social force driven by an overarching master frame. Yet this claim has thus far been poorly documented. Analyzing public opinion data from a nationally representative April 2000 Gallup Poll, we find substantial evidence of a progressive social movement ideology centered around the extension of rights within the American public, as support for individual movements within this family is highly interrelated. Adherents to this progressive social movement ideology are drawn from self-identified political Liberals and Democrats, the more highly educated, women, younger, and less religious adults. We argue that public opinion research should be seen as a valuable complement to existing case-based social movement scholarship.
Go to AGRIS search. Extension Bulletin - Washington State University, Cooperative Extension Servi... more Go to AGRIS search. Extension Bulletin - Washington State University, Cooperative Extension Service (Jan 1985). Washington energy activists view energy issues. ...
's dramatic 1988 Senate testimony that human-caused global warming had already begun put the issu... more 's dramatic 1988 Senate testimony that human-caused global warming had already begun put the issue on the US national agenda (McCright & Dunlap, 2000). Yet, the US has still not enacted effective carbon reduction policies due to intense opposition from industry Political Action Committees (PACs), corporate lobbying and other tactics (Ard et al., 2017; Brulle, 2018; Brulle & Aronczyk, 2019). One crucial strategy has been to cast doubt on the seriousness of human-caused climate change, first by promoting supposed 'uncertainty' about its existence and seriousness (Oreskes & Conway, 2010), and then by attacking climate science and more recently the integrity of climate scientists (Boussalis & Coan, 2016; Powell, 2011). This denial campaign has created widespread scepticism and outright denial among the American public and policy-makers that clearly hinders effective action. The campaign to sow uncertainty about climate change was facilitated by decades of promotion of free-market (or neoliberal) ideology and outright attacks on government (Klein, 2014; Oreskes & Conway, 2010), and more recently by assaults on institutions and experts of all types-especially government officials, scientists, educators, and the mainstream media (Nichols, 2017). The consequence is that anti-intellectualism (long a feature of American life) has become widespread (Jacoby, 2008), creating a major decline in trust in government and many other institutions (Brennan, 2019; Jones, 2018). This has helped generate a 'post-truth society' (D'Ancona, 2017) highly receptive to various sources of misinformation and 'alternative facts,' such as 'climate change has no scientific basis'. This chapter provides an overview of the key sources and amplifiers of climate change denial in the US, which constitute a large 'ecosystem' of actors that has evolved over the past three decades-new ones emerging as needed and marginal ones fading away (Brulle & Aronczyk, 2019). These include fossil fuels and other major corporations and their trade associations, conservative philanthropists and their foundations, conservative think tanks, public relations firms, various front groups and coalitions, 'astroturf' groups designed for short-term campaigns, a small number of contrarian scientists, a vast conservative 'echo chamber' (consisting of conservative TV and radio outlets and a few newspapers, denier bloggers and denial advocates on social media) and nearly the entire Republican Party. We briefly highlight the above actors' roles and interconnections in what is often called the 'denial machine' (Begley, 2007), constituting a 'climate change countermovement' (CCCM) that opposes the scientists, policy-makers, and activists promoting concern about climate change and the need to reduce carbon emissions (Brulle & Aronczyk, 2019; Dunlap & McCright, 2015). Its primary strategy is the creation and dissemination of misinformation regarding climate science and climate change more generally (Cook, Chapter X; Oreskes & Conway, 2010), an effort facilitated to some degree by the inherent complexity of climate science (Dunlap & McCright 2015; Gallant & Lewis, Chapter X). While the CCCM has spread internationally, it originated in the US and thus we will focus primarily on American actors and amplifiers of denial.
's dramatic 1988 Senate testimony that human-caused global warming had already begun put the issu... more 's dramatic 1988 Senate testimony that human-caused global warming had already begun put the issue on the US national agenda (McCright & Dunlap, 2000). Yet, the US has still not enacted effective carbon reduction policies due to intense opposition from industry Political Action Committees (PACs), corporate lobbying and other tactics (Ard et al., 2017; Brulle, 2018; Brulle & Aronczyk, 2019). One crucial strategy has been to cast doubt on the seriousness of human-caused climate change, first by promoting supposed 'uncertainty' about its existence and seriousness (Oreskes & Conway, 2010), and then by attacking climate science and more recently the integrity of climate scientists (Boussalis & Coan, 2016; Powell, 2011). This denial campaign has created widespread scepticism and outright denial among the American public and policy-makers that clearly hinders effective action. The campaign to sow uncertainty about climate change was facilitated by decades of promotion of free-market (or neoliberal) ideology and outright attacks on government (Klein, 2014; Oreskes & Conway, 2010), and more recently by assaults on institutions and experts of all types-especially government officials, scientists, educators, and the mainstream media (Nichols, 2017). The consequence is that anti-intellectualism (long a feature of American life) has become widespread (Jacoby, 2008), creating a major decline in trust in government and many other institutions (Brennan, 2019; Jones, 2018). This has helped generate a 'post-truth society' (D'Ancona, 2017) highly receptive to various sources of misinformation and 'alternative facts,' such as 'climate change has no scientific basis'. This chapter provides an overview of the key sources and amplifiers of climate change denial in the US, which constitute a large 'ecosystem' of actors that has evolved over the past three decades-new ones emerging as needed and marginal ones fading away (Brulle & Aronczyk, 2019). These include fossil fuels and other major corporations and their trade associations, conservative philanthropists and their foundations, conservative think tanks, public relations firms, various front groups and coalitions, 'astroturf' groups designed for short-term campaigns, a small number of contrarian scientists, a vast conservative 'echo chamber' (consisting of conservative TV and radio outlets and a few newspapers, denier bloggers and denial advocates on social media) and nearly the entire Republican Party. We briefly highlight the above actors' roles and interconnections in what is often called the 'denial machine' (Begley, 2007), constituting a 'climate change countermovement' (CCCM) that opposes the scientists, policy-makers, and activists promoting concern about climate change and the need to reduce carbon emissions (Brulle & Aronczyk, 2019; Dunlap & McCright, 2015). Its primary strategy is the creation and dissemination of misinformation regarding climate science and climate change more generally (Cook, Chapter X; Oreskes & Conway, 2010), an effort facilitated to some degree by the inherent complexity of climate science (Dunlap & McCright 2015; Gallant & Lewis, Chapter X). While the CCCM has spread internationally, it originated in the US and thus we will focus primarily on American actors and amplifiers of denial.
All human societies are part of and dependent on local and global ecosystems. Following the Indus... more All human societies are part of and dependent on local and global ecosystems. Following the Industrial Revolution, human societies came to be dominant forces shaping ecological processes, leading to our current era, which is being referred to with growing frequency as the Anthropocene to acknowledge the extraordinary scope and scale of human influences on the earth (Steffen et al. 2007). The major alteration of global ecology has dramatic implications for the millions of other species with whom humans share the Earth and for human well-being. Despite the ontological threats stemming from ecological disruption, throughout much of the twentieth century there was pervasive exuberance in the United States that led the general public, politicians, and scholars alike to believe that modern societies had overcome natural constraints and that societies would "progress" into a continually brighter future free from the scarcity that had beset societies in the past (Catton and Dunlap 1980). The discipline of sociology suffered from the same ecological blinders that charac terized society in general. Early sociologists commonly made efforts to distance soci ology from the natural sciences, insisting that social facts were principally explained by other social facts rather than by biological and physical phenomena. Over the course of the twentieth century, most sociologists largely ignored the natural environ ment, embracing a "human exemptionalism" viewpoint that implicitly (and some times explicitly) denied that modern societies were substantially influenced by their biophysical context. This began to change in the 1970s, following rising concern among natural scientists, policy-makers, and the general public about pollution and other environmental problems, and particularly after the 1973 energy crisis, which highlighted societies' dependence on natural resources (Catton and Dunlap 1980).
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