| Description |
The study of environmental values is focused on explaining environmentalism with either the postmaterialist values hypothesis or the objective problems subjective values hypothesis. The first explains environmentalism as the result of affluence, mainly in the Global North, and the second focuses on exposure to degradation, mainly in the Global South. In this study I engage theories of ecological modernization, ecologically unequal exchange, and treadmill of production to examine the effects of national levels of affluence, economic growth, and degradation on the likelihood that individuals in different nations will consider environmental protection highly important. Results of multilevel analysis indicate that high levels of national affluence are associated with less individual environmentalism, contrary to affluence and ecological modernization theories. I also find that higher rates of economic growth are associated with higher levels of environmentalism, although as ecologically unequal exchange and treadmill of production theories suggest, this may have less to do with improving economic circumstances and more to do with the degradation that accompanies development. |
