Environmental public opinion in U.S. states, 1973–2012

Partisan polarization of public opinion is a major trend in American environmental politics. While the national pattern is widely recognized, scholars know much less about the polarization of public opinion over time at the state level. This lack of knowledge is unfortunate because geographic variation in the polarization of opinion is essential for explaining the origins of partisan polarization and evaluating its consequences for policy. To fill the gap, the multilevel regression and poststratification technique is applied to provide credible estimates of state-level environmental public opinion for both Democrats and Republicans, 1973–2012. It appears that the growing partisan gap reflects increased pro-environmental opinion among Democrats across many states, whereas Republican state-level public opinion is converging toward a much lower baseline. Cross-state variation among both parties has decreased over time, contributing to greater partisan polarization in the aggregate. Changes in the sorting of voters in and out of political parties cannot explain these patterns of polarization.     

亲贫式增长刍议:论少数民族地区的扶贫政策取向

考察了经济增长和扶贫政策之间的跨国证据,突出了区域差异和国家经验这两个层面上形成的促进共同发展的多样性。对亲贫式增长的定义表明经济增长和扶贫这两个发展战略之间可能存在一种权衡问题。跨国证据表明,平均收入增长率和低收入者的收入增长率之间关系的巨大差异性,使得扶贫战略完全基于经济增长政策的论断存在争议。持续的快速增长显然有益于贫困人口,但是,如果整体的快速经济增长伴随着收入分配的缓慢恶化,这对贫困人口的福利比对经济增长影响更大。如果一国总体处于低增长环境,那么经济增长将难以获得贫困人口的支持。同时面向经济增长和旨在明确经济增长所带来的好处的混合策略被证明在实现持续减贫中可能是最为成功的。研究认为,在中国长期高速经济增长的支撑下,少数民族地区在收入改善和贫困人口数量显著减少方面取得了另世人瞩目的成就,为促进经济增长的倡导者和干预式扶贫的拥护者提供了实践支持。然而,普适的经济增长有利于贫困人口,但不会以相同的程度发生在少数民族地区。显然,一项公共政策更关注经济增长是必要的,但也同时必须关注经济增长所带来的收益是否会反映在提供贫困人口收入和贫困人口不可能轻易放弃的福祉上。针对于少数民族地区最有效的发展政策,是那些主张共同发展和利用公共政策创造增长的战略,同时还有利于贫困人口的共同参与,以确保他们成为积极的参与者和增长的受益者。自然资源收益管理,原生态农产品开发和区域经济带建设被列为促进这种增长战略实施的三个最有前途的领域。     

Risk and Responsibility in Public Engagement by Climate Scientists: Reconsidering Advocacy During the Trump Era

The election as US President of Donald J Trump, who denies the scientific consensus on climate change, raises questions about the role of scientists in public discourse. How far should scientists wade into the waters of advocacy before risking their credibility of fair arbiters of knowledge? The new study by Kotcher, Myers, Vraga, Stenhouse, and Maibach [2017. Does engagement in advocacy hurt the credibility of scientists? Results from a randomized national survey experiment. Environmental Communication. doi:10.1080/17524032.2016.1275736] is a reminder that scientists are among the most trusted people in public life and have some freedom to engage publicly without harming their reputation. However, with the power to influence public debate comes the responsibility to carefully consider the impact of statements and actions. This commentary discusses the challenges facing scientists at a time of great potential for public engagement, and for a gap between perceived and actual intent of public statements.     

Hurricane Katrina‐linked environmental injustice: race,class, and place differentials in attitudes

Claims of environmental injustice, human neglect, and racism dominated the popular and academic literature after Hurricane Katrina struck the United States in August 2005. A systematic analysis of environmental injustice from the perspective of the survivors remains scanty or nonexistent. This paper presents, therefore, a systematic empirical analysis of the key determinants of Katrina‐induced environmental injustice attitudes among survivors in severely affected parishes (counties) in Louisiana and Mississippi three years into the recovery process. Statistical models based on a random sample of survivors were estimated, with the results revealing significant predictors such as age, children in household under 18, education, homeownership, and race. The results further indicate that African‐Americans were more likely to perceive environmental injustice following Katrina than their white counterparts. Indeed, the investigation reveals that there are substantial racial gaps in measures of environmental injustice. The theoretical, methodological, and applied policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

The evolving local social contract for managing climate and disaster risk in Vietnam

How do disasters shape local government legitimacy in relation to managing climate‐ and disaster‐related risks? This paper looks at how local authorities in Central Vietnam perceive their social contract for risk reduction, including the partial merging of responsibilities for disaster risk management with new plans for and investments in climate change adaptation and broader socioeconomic development. The findings indicate that extreme floods and storms constitute critical junctures that stimulate genuine institutional change. Local officials are proud of their strengthened role in disaster response and they are eager to boost investment in infrastructure. They have struggled to reinforce their legitimacy among their constituents, but given the shifting roles of the state, private sector, and civil society, and the undiminished emphasis on high‐risk development models, their responsibilities for responding to emerging climate change scenarios are increasingly nebulous. The past basis for legitimacy is no longer valid, but tomorrow's social contract is not yet defined.     

基于公众视角的中小化工企业环境风险研究

中小化工企业尽管能给当地政府带来可观的社会和经济效益,但同时也对其周边环境和居民健康造成严重威胁,已成为影响地方可持续发展的重要隐患。然而,公众如何看待中小化工企业造成的环境风险、企业与政府的环境管理和污染改善策略如何,目前还鲜有深入研究。本文基于河北省X县化工厂周边居民问卷调查(N=550),旨在了解公众对当地化工厂环境风险及管理的认知状况,分析影响公众环境风险认知的主要因素,并提出相应的政策建议。结果表明：了解化工厂管理情况和环保局监督情况的受访者分别占10.9%和7.5%;64%的受访者认为化工企业建成后环境质量变差,受访者认为化工厂给当地环境质量和居民健康带来风险的可能性比带来社会、经济利益的可能性更大。Spearman相关分析表明,受访者教育程度、家庭收入、生活经历等都会影响受访者的风险认知情况。最后基于调查结果从政府、企业环境信息的及时发布、化工企业排污管理以及政府、企业与公众的风险沟通方面提出改善管理的举措。     

Local opposition against high-voltage grids: public responses to agency-caused science–policy trolls

High-voltage (hV) transmission grids are projects of societal importance that potentially have controversial social and environmental impacts. Former research shows that public opposition is sparked by the perception of negative local impacts and unjust concessionary processes. In this paper, we complement these perspectives by assessing the institutional practices of the regulatory agencies in dealing with scientific uncertainties. The regulatory agencies’ ‘ways of doing things’ are often designed to serve policy and management needs. A critical point is that the demarcation between scientifically based facts, values and assessments is often blurred in the decision-making process. This paper draws on two Norwegian case studies to investigate how the regulatory agencies dealt with (1) electromagnetic fields and health risks and (2) overhead lines versus sea cables. We argue that ambiguities and uncertainties that arise in the hV transmission line processes create ‘trolls’, and we explore how the local inhabitants and affected stakeholders in the two cases responded to these and how it triggered further opposition. By investigating how and why trolls appear and are handled, we conclude by discussing how public opposition related to hV transmission grids may be reduced – and how some ‘trolls’ may crack.     

The use of indicators in environmental policy appraisal: lessons from the design and evolution of water security policy measures

Drawing up environmental policy options is a complex activity which involves defining and weighing the merits and risks of various alternative courses of action governments could pursue. In its modern version, this task typically involves formal policy analysis or ‘policy appraisal’, that is, policy work specifically undertaken to generate and evaluate policy options in order to address problems or issues on a policy agenda. Indicators play a powerful but under-investigated role in this process. To shed light on this issue, the paper conducts a case study of the design and evolution of policy indicators in water security policy formulation, examining both their utilization and impact. The paper documents the origins of water security policy indicators; assesses their relevance and influence in policy formulation and identifies the reasons for the emergence of certain preferred indices, despite their having several well-known limitations. In particular, the discussion flags the significance of the political advantages surrounding their ease of use and interpretation, rather than their technical merits, as a key factor affecting the continued utilization and influence of specific indicators in environmental policy and planning.