Have Extreme Events Awakened Us?

Abstract

We may translate anthropogenic climate change as a reaction of our planet to our unsustainable economic activities. This research explores whether environmental policies have been impacted by extreme climatic events like droughts, floods, storms, tornados, and wildfires. We use yearly panel data from 1990 to 2017 for the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries to examine such a relationship. To have an impartial analysis, we control major variables influencing environmental policies such as energy consumption, gross domestic product (GDP), population, technology, head of the state’s political affiliation, carbon emission, and waste generation. The analysis results suggest that policymakers make more stringent environmental decisions as the death rate increases and environmental threats become more imminent putting human life is at risk; this correlation is stronger in the case of European Countries.