Public Environmental Concern Research Articles

Understanding Individual Environmental Concern in the Context of Local Environmental Governance in China: A Multi-Level Analysis

A growing literature has examined the contextual effect of governance on public environmental concern, but most were conducted in a cross-national context. This article investigates the effects of local-level governance on individual environmental concern in China, where environmental governance follows a top-down, non-participatory approach. We compiled a city-level database capturing local participation in sustainability-related policy experimentation and local budgetary expenditure on environmental protection. Combining this with the 2010 China General Social Survey (CGSS) data, multi-level modeling analysis revealed that citizens express stronger environmental concern living in a city more active in sustainability policies, but that the positive coefficient is significant for the urban sample but not for the rural sample. Policy experimentation related to urban livability – rather than ecological conservation – has a more significant impact on environmental concern. The results highlight governance as a contextual factor for understanding the determinants of individual environmental attitudes.

Willingness to accept energy-saving measures and adoption barriers in the residential sector: An empirical analysis in Beijing, China

This paper investigates the public attitude toward and willingness to accept six energy-saving measures in the residential sector in Beijing, China. The qualitative results derived from questionnaires show that financial incentives and the desire to reduce energy consumption are the most significant factors driving the public to adopt the measures and that the unavailability of electric vehicle (EV) chargers is a crucial barrier to the promotion of EVs. The quantitative results indicate that socioeconomic variables have a greater impact on technical energy-saving measures than behavioral ones. Renters or individuals with a high risk preference have a lower willingness to accept energy-efficient air conditioners. The price of gasoline, convenience of EV chargers, EV policy package, and environmental concern can significantly influence willingness to purchase an EV. With regard to behavioral energy-saving measures, control of the heating system and the influence of nearby people (spillover effect) significantly increase the preference for closing windows when the heating is on. The public transportation convenience, high gasoline prices and the congestion charge have significant effects on residents’ willingness to use public transportation. Infrastructure upgrades to heating and transportation would remove adoption barriers and facilitate energy conservation. Price policies and preferential policies related to EVs could have a significant impact on household choice of transportation mode. Finally, increasing the public energy-saving awareness and environmental concern is recommended to facilitate the promotion of energy-saving options.

The Impact of Severe Air Pollution in January 2013 in Beijing on Sustained Elevation of Public Environmental Concern

Abstract Harmful and sudden events trigger intense media coverage which in turn can elevate public interest in a problem within an instant. A period of heavy air pollution in Beijing in January 2013 may have been such a case. This sudden and intense period of air pollution featured historically high levels of fine particulate concentrations and was assumed by observers to be a trigger for shifting public perception and increased pressure for policy adjustment. This study examines whether this period of severe air pollution indeed triggered increased public scrutiny, following which the influential factors behind this development are outlined. In this context, a focus is given to the interplay of air quality, media reporting and public discussion in shaping sustained public interest. Based on a timeline analysis and survey data, it is argued that the combination of historically high air pollution with intense media reporting did lead to higher public attention to the topic.

The municipal solid waste management of La Paz (Bolivia): Challenges and opportunities for a sustainable development.

Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is considered an important public health, economic and environmental concern, especially in developing countries. This paper introduces the situation of MSWM in La Paz (Bolivia) in 2016, and is based on the Wasteaware indicators and waste flow analysis, useful tools for classifying and comparing waste treatment and management plans among other countries. Taking into account the lack of technology in waste treatment and the presence of a developed informal sector, the paper analyses the main strengths and weak points for implementing a sustainable MSWM. The research conducted revealed that the MSWM of La Paz is not efficient with regard to collection, recycling (8%), financial sustainability, and equity of the service. At the same time, local Government and stakeholders are interested in implementing new MSWM methods for improving the current sanitary state of the city and many efforts were made over the last ten years. In general terms, La Paz could be considered as a good study area for developing plans for waste valorization, becoming an example for a low-middle income developing big city of Latin America. The study provided a few considerations about the affordability of the methodology applied and critically analyzed the case study proposed.

Bird specimens track 135 years of atmospheric black carbon and environmental policy

Atmospheric black carbon has long been recognized as a public health and environmental concern. More recently, black carbon has been identified as a major, ongoing contributor to anthropogenic climate change, thus making historical emission inventories of black carbon an essential tool for assessing past climate sensitivity and modeling future climate scenarios. Current estimates of black carbon emissions for the early industrial era have high uncertainty, however, because direct environmental sampling is sparse before the mid-1950s. Using photometric reflectance data of >1,300 bird specimens drawn from natural history collections, we track relative ambient concentrations of atmospheric black carbon between 1880 and 2015 within the US Manufacturing Belt, a region historically reliant on coal and dense with industry. Our data show that black carbon levels within the region peaked during the first decade of the 20th century. Following this peak, black carbon levels were positively correlated with coal consumption through midcentury, after which they decoupled, with black carbon concentrations declining as consumption continued to rise. The precipitous drop in atmospheric black carbon at midcentury reflects policies promoting burning efficiency and fuel transitions rather than regulating emissions alone. Our findings suggest that current emission inventories based on predictive modeling underestimate levels of atmospheric black carbon for the early industrial era, suggesting that the contribution of black carbon to past climate forcing may also be underestimated. These findings build toward a spatially dynamic emission inventory of black carbon based on direct environmental sampling.

How to promote sustainable public bike system from a psychological perspective?

ABSTRACTThe public bike system (PBS) has been actively promoted worldwide for the last decade. This study tried to find out policy strategies for sustainable PBS implementation targeting on the city that is under consideration of introducing bike sharing scheme. For this, the authors considered some psychological factors that may make impacts on PBS user's attitudes and hypothesized especially that individual environmental concern refers to an attitude toward environmental issues, influence an increase of their perceived value of PBS. The Norm Activation Model (NAM) is used to measure the public's environmental concern incorporating norm activation. In addition, willingness to pay (WTP) method is adopted to investigate the value of PBS individuals. Structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that environmental concern influenced people's perception of the value of PBS. Furthermore, the positive correlation between environmental concern and awareness of consequences on cycling is observed. The study verifies how people perceive the value of a bike sharing system and how often people using a bicycle are dependent on their environmental concern. In conclusion, authors discuss how PBS could be promoted sustainably by suggesting policy strategies to enhance the perceived value of PBS and to increase bicycle use.

National income and environmental concern: Observations from 35 countries.

National income produces mixed impacts on public environmental concern. In a cross-national survey, environmental concern was measured in terms of propensity to act and environmental risk perception. Results of a multilevel regression analysis show that these two measures respond to gross domestic product per capita in opposite ways. Citizens of advanced industrial countries are more likely than those of lower-income countries to contribute to environmental protection. However, they are less likely to see the harmful impacts on the environment as very dangerous. Using an indicator of national adaptive capacity, this article demonstrates that environmental risk perception is a function of a country's estimated capacity for coping with condition changes. The stronger sense of collective security among citizens of wealthier nations offers a possible explanation for the negative effects of national income. These results indicate the complex relationship between development and public environmental concern across countries.

A Panel Regression Study on Multiple Predictors of Environmental Concern for 82 Countries Across Seven Years*

ObjectiveThis article evaluates the extent to which economic affluence, ecological degradation, integration into the world polity, and economic globalization each contributes to the change in environmental concern in 82 countries across seven years.MethodUsing multivariate panel regression, I have analyzed a combined data set of four waves of World Values Surveys and three waves of surveys from the International Social Survey Program.ResultsFindings reveal that exposure to ecological degradation is positively related to growing environmental concern, whereas economic affluence has a negative association. In addition, integration into the world polity does not affect environmental concern and the two indicators of economic globalization have mixed impact.ConclusionThis study demonstrates that potentially influential factors have different influence over public environmental concern. Thus, a parsimonious explanation is inadequate since there is no universalistic factor that can account for all variations in environmental concern.

Public environmental concern in China: Determinants and variations

How much are Chinese people and various citizen groups concerned about the environment relative to other major public problems? What are the key factors and to what extent do these factors shape individual Chinese environmental concern? Based on a micro-macro model and a county fixed model proposed in this study, we employ nationwide representative public opinion survey data and provincial statistics to examine the determinants and variations of public environmental concern in China. The data shows that environmental concern is not among the top-ranked issue concerns in China overall, but in the urban areas and in the east-coastal region environmental protection features as a rather important issue. Our regression analyses further demonstrate that the Chinese environmental concern is significantly affected by both micro-level socio-demographic variables and macro-level regional economic conditions and environmental risks. In the east-coastal region, such individuals as urbanites with high income are most environmentally concerned. There is a lack of concern over environmental issues among the public in the west region, where little association between individual sociodemographics and their environmental concern is detected. In the central-northeast region, education effect is evident in the rural area. Location contextual factors such as economic development and environmental risk account for most of the observed variations in public environment concern.

Contrasting regional and national mechanisms for predicting elevated arsenic in private wells across the United States using classification and regression trees

Arsenic contamination in groundwater is a public health and environmental concern in the United States (U.S.) particularly where monitoring is not required under the Safe Water Drinking Act. Previous studies suggest the influence of regional mechanisms for arsenic mobilization into groundwater; however, no study has examined how influencing parameters change at a continental scale spanning multiple regions. We herein examine covariates for groundwater in the western, central and eastern U.S. regions representing mechanisms associated with arsenic concentrations exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maximum contamination level (MCL) of 10 parts per billion (ppb). Statistically significant covariates were identified via classification and regression tree (CART) analysis, and included hydrometeorological and groundwater chemical parameters. The CART analyses were performed at two scales: national and regional; for which three physiographic regions located in the western (Payette Section and the Snake River Plain), central (Osage Plains of the Central Lowlands), and eastern (Embayed Section of the Coastal Plains) U.S. were examined. Validity of each of the three regional CART models was indicated by values >85% for the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve. Aridity (precipitation minus potential evapotranspiration) was identified as the primary covariate associated with elevated arsenic at the national scale. At the regional scale, aridity and pH were the major covariates in the arid to semi-arid (western) region; whereas dissolved iron (taken to represent chemically reducing conditions) and pH were major covariates in the temperate (eastern) region, although additional important covariates emerged, including elevated phosphate. Analysis in the central U.S. region indicated that elevated arsenic concentrations were driven by a mixture of those observed in the western and eastern regions.

Arsenic acute toxicity assessment on select freshwater organism species in Malaysia

Recently, arsenic has contaminated the aquatic ecosystem, raising government and public environmental concern. In this study, four freshwater organisms were used to evaluate arsenic toxicity levels. Two types of fish, namely Poecilia reticulata (guppy) (Poeciliidae) and Rasbora Sumatrana (Cyprinidae), an aquatic worm species Tubifex tubifex (Oligochaeta) and diptera midge larvae Chironomus javanus (Chironomidae) were exposed for a 4-day (96 h) period in laboratory conditions to a range of arsenic (As) concentrations. Mortality was assessed and median lethal times (LT50) and concentrations (LC50) were calculated. The objective of this study is to determine the acute toxicity of arsenic concentration on Poecilia reticula, Rasbora sumatrana, Tubifex tubifex and Chironomus javanus. Results showed that LT50 and LC50 increase with the decrease in mean exposure concentrations and times. Results indicated that Tubifex tubifex was most sensitive to arsenic toxicity compared to other organisms used in this study in this order; Tubifex tubifex > Chironomus javanus > Rasbora sumatrana > Poecilia reticulata.

PCBs in Construction Materials: Old Chemical, New Context

U.S. regulations have historically focused on control of liquid polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Nonliquid PCBs present as plasticizers in some construction materials were generally viewed as immobile and not of public health or environmental concern. By the 2000s, nonliquid PCBs began receiving significant regulatory attention, particularly in schools. More recently, PCB-containing construction materials at commercial and industrial facilities are also receiving increased attention. This article highlights the drivers that have led to the increased focus on nonliquid PCBs in construction materials and why this trend is likely to continue, and highlights some of the complexities that can arise for stakeholders.

Radiation release at the nation's only operating deep geological repository--an independent monitoring perspective.

Recent incidents at the nation's only operating deep geologic nuclear waste repository, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), resulted in the release of americium and plutonium from one or more defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste containers into the environment. WIPP is a U.S. Department of Energy mined geologic repository that has been in operation since March, 1999. Over 85,000 m3 of waste in various vented payload containers have been emplaced in the repository. The primary radionuclides within the disposed waste are 239+240Pu and 241Am, which account for more than 99% of the total TRU radioactivity disposed and scheduled for disposal in the repository. For the first time in its 15 years of operation, there was an airborne radiation release from the WIPP at approximately 11:30 PM Mountain Standard Time (MST) on Friday, February 14, 2014. The radiation release was likely caused by a chemical reaction inside a TRU waste drum that contained nitrate salts and organic sorbent materials. In a recent news release, DOE announced that photos taken of the waste underground showed evidence of heat and gas pressure resulting in a deformed lid, in material expelled through that deformation, and in melted plastic and rubber and polyethylene in the vicinity of that drum. Recent entries into underground Panel 7 have confirmed that at least one waste drum containing a nitrate salt bearing waste stream from Los Alamos National Laboratory was breached underground and was the most likely source of the release. Further investigation is underway to determine if other containers contributed to the release. Air monitoring across the WIPP site intensified following the first reports of radiation detection underground to ascertain whether or not there were releases to the ground surface. Independent analytical results of air filters from sampling stations on and near the WIPP facility have been released by us at the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring & Research Center and confirmed trace amounts of 241Am and 239+240Pu, at ratios reflecting the suspect waste stream. The highest activity detected offsite was 115.2 μBq/m3 for 241Am and 10.2 μBq/m3 for 239+240 Pu. These concentrations in air were very small, localized, and below any level of public health or environmental concern.

Examining the determinants of public environmental concern: Evidence from national public surveys

Abstract Early research showed that citizens’ environmental concern in the United States was linked to three individual-level factors: socio-demographic variables, political orientations, and personal beliefs or worldviews about human-nature relations. Given many changes in the American society over the last several decades, one important, yet unanswered question is whether these factors still drive public environmental concern in the United States today, and if so, to what extent. This study, drawing from extant theoretical and empirical studies, aims to reinvestigate the determinants of citizens’ environmental concern by employing three national public surveys conducted in 2004, 2007, and 2013. Our data analyses confirm and expand the findings of previous research on the significance and importance of political ideology, fundamental beliefs about human-nature relations, and certain socioeconomic factors such as gender and race in explaining citizens’ environmental concern. More specifically, political liberals, people with higher New Ecological Paradigm values, females, and Non-Whites tend to be more concerned about environmental problems than their counterparts are. Our data analyses also reveal some interesting findings when compared to many previous studies: first, our data indicate a positive relationship between age and environmental concern, suggesting that older people in the United States are more concerned about the environment than younger adults; second, unlike most past research showing a positive Education-Environmental Concern relationship, our study suggests that education level seems to have little effect in explaining citizens’ environmental concern measured in this study. Key implications for environmental policymaking and recommendations for future research are discussed in the conclusion.

The effect of economic affluence and ecological degradation on Chinese environmental concern: a multilevel analysis

Despite being the world’s second largest economy and the single largest producer of carbon dioxide, few studies have analyzed the nature of the Chinese general public’s concern over environmental quality. This paper engages in the longstanding discussion of the postmaterialist values theory and the objective problems subjective values (OPSV) theory that might explain that concern. Specifically, I assess the impacts of economic affluence and ecologic degradation on the likelihood of environmental concern for over 3,000 individuals across 26 provinces in China. I initially use principal component factor analysis to identify three distinct dimensions of general environmental concern. I then employ correlation and regression methods to analyze the associations between these aspects of environmental concern and potential explanatory variables. Individual-level analysis and provincial-level analysis indicate that ecological degradation and economic affluence influence one’s overall environmental concern. By using empirical evidence in China to test theoretical frameworks that were originally proposed in the Western world, this paper contributes to the ongoing study of environmental concern. In addition, the formation of public environmental concern can serve as an important prerequisite to initiate collective protests and promote policy changes to improve the deteriorating environment.

Eco-friendly and modern methods of livestock waste recycling for enhancing farm profitability

The livestock waste is major source of noxious gases, harmful pathogens and odor; hence, it has public health and environmental concern. Hence, livestock waste is to be managed properly to mitigate production of these pollutants in order to protect environment. Proper utilization of livestock waste into biogas, compost and vermicompost making can be very useful to increase crop yield and sustainability. The work carried out regarding livestock waste management and value addition in some developed and some developing countries have been reviewed. India and China are the two leading Asian countries using biogas technology. The biogas can be successfully purified and after bottling at 150 bar pressure can be used as CNG cylinders in vehicular and cooking application. The biogas plant of 60 m3 capacity if used for biogas bottling can save $147/day. The integration of composting and vermicomposting is better compared to either composting or vermicomposting as it requires less time to complete cycle and furthermore, the substrates produced after combined process has better physical and chemical properties which can support crops. The recent work suggested that algae cultivation from livestock waste can be converted into bio-oil and other many valuable products. The waste fed or livestock integrated fish farming has good potential to generate the income.

Antimony leaching from contaminated soil under manganese- and iron-reducing conditions: column experiments

Environmental context Contamination of shooting range soils by antimony (Sb) released from corroding ammunition has become an issue of public environmental concern. Because many of these sites are subject to waterlogging and consequently limited aeration, we performed column experiments with contaminated shooting range soil to investigate Sb mobility under such conditions. The results are important for our understanding of the risks arising from Sb-contaminated soils, and also for the derivation of appropriate management strategies for such sites. Abstract Despite the environmental risks arising from antimony-contaminated sites, critical factors controlling the mobility of Sb in soils have still not been fully identified to date. We performed column experiments to investigate how reducing conditions affect Sb leaching from a calcareous shooting range soil, with a special focus on the relationship between Sb release and mineral dissolution processes. After eluting the columns for 5 days with 15mM lactate solution at a flow rate of 33mm day–1, the flow was interrupted for 37 days and then resumed for another 5 days. With the transition to moderately reducing conditions (~300mV) after 1 day of flow, effluent SbV and manganese (Mn) concentrations showed a concomitant increase, providing evidence that SbV associated to these phases was released by the reductive dissolution of Mn minerals. The release of SbV was counteracted by the reduction to SbIII, which was first scavenged by iron (Fe) (hydr)oxides and then slowly liberated again when the redox potential further decreased to Fe-reducing conditions. Laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry revealed the presence of an initial pool of Sb associated with Mn-containing, Fe-free phases, underpinning the important role of the latter in addition to Fe (hydr)oxides as Sb sorbents.

Remediation of Perfluorooctane Sulfonate in Contaminated Soils by Modified Clay Adsorbent—a Risk-Based Approach

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), which has numerous uses besides being an ingredient in the formulation of aqueous film-forming foams, is considered as an emerging pollutant of increasing public health and environmental concern due to recent reports of its worldwide distribution, environmental persistence and bioaccumulation potential. In an attempt to recommend a ‘risk-based’ remediation strategy, this study investigates the removal of PFOS from impacted waters and fixation of PFOS in impacted soils using a novel modified clay adsorbent (MatCARE™, patent number 2009905953). Batch adsorption tests demonstrated a much faster adsorption kinetics (only 60 min to reach equilibrium) and remarkably higher PFOS adsorption capacity (0.09 mmol g−1) of the MatCARE™ compared to a commercial activated carbon (0.07 mmol g−1). Treatability studies, performed by treating the PFOS-contaminated soils with the MatCARE™ (10 % w/w) and then incubating at 25 and 37 °C temperatures maintaining 60 % of the maximum water holding capacity of the soils for a period of a year, demonstrated a negligible release (water extractable) of the contaminant (only 0.5 to 0.6 %). The fixation of PFOS in soils by the new adsorbent was exothermic in nature. Soils with higher clay and organic matter content, but lower pH values, retained PFOS to a much greater extent. A cost analyses confirmed that the MatCARETM could be an economically viable option for the ‘risk-based’ remediation of PFOS in contaminated waters and soils.

A Multidimensional Analysis of Public Environmental Concern in Canada

Cet article aborde la question du souci de l'environnement chez les Canadiennes et Canadiens à partir des données du World Values Survey 2006. Les résultats démontrent qu'il existe une relation significative entre d'une part l’éducation, le niveau de connaissance par rapport aux problèmes environnementaux et l'allégeance politique, et d'autre part le niveau de souci de l'environnement. Les individus ayant un plus haut niveau d’éducation et une plus grande connaissance des problèmes environnementaux sont plus susceptibles de se soucier de l'environnement. Le niveau de souci de l'environnement est de plus polarisé selon l'allégeance politique, en ce sens que les individus s'identifiant comme étant politiquement de gauche montrent un plus haut niveau de souci de l'environnement que ceux qui s'identifient comme de droite. L'analyse met également de l'avant le caractère multi‐dimensionnel du souci de l'environnement : alors que certaines personnes montrent une plus grande conscience des menaces à l'environnement ou encore une plus grande disposition à débourser de l'argent pour assurer la protection de l'environnement, d'autres sont plus enclines à participer directement aux activités d'organisations environnementalistes.This article uses the 2006 World Values Survey data to examine which Canadians are most concerned about the environment. The results show that those individuals who have more education and greater knowledge of global environmental degradation are more likely to be concerned about the environment. Environmental concern in Canada is also politicized in that liberals are more concerned about the environment than conservatives. The results also show that environmental concern is multidimensional. Although some Canadians show more awareness of environmental threat and more willingness to pay for environmental protection, others are more likely to directly participate in environmental organizations.

Empirical investigations on boards, business characteristics, human capital and environmental reporting

Purpose – The objectives of this paper are to examine the level of environmental disclosure in annual reports made by Malaysian public listed companies for the year ended 2009, and to investigate whether there are any relationships between board characteristics (board size and board independence), firm characteristics (business type) and human capital characteristics (age, knowledge background and proportion of female directors) and environmental disclosure in Malaysian public listed companies' annual reports for the year ended 2009. Design/methodology/approach – The study constructs the environmental disclosure index with 11 disclosure themes based on research by Sharifah et al. to determine the environmental disclosure level. The study uses content analysis to find the environmental disclosure items and constructs an environmental disclosure index from the companies' annual reports. Hierarchical regression analysis is used to examine the relationships between the environmental disclosure index and board characteristics (board size and board independence), firm characteristics (business type) and human capital characteristics (age, knowledge background and proportion of female directors). Findings – The results of the study reveal that there is a significant relationship between the existence of an independent non-executive chairman, the chairperson's age, the existence of a CEO with a law background and the industry type with the extent of environmental disclosure. The industry type is found to be the most significant variable that influences the level of environmental disclosure in Malaysian public listed companies for the year ended 2009. Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited to Malaysian public listed companies for the year January to December 2009. The source of the data used in this study is companies' annual reports only. This study has several implications that may apply in many countries, irrespective of whether they are developing or developed countries. First, it provides strong evidence to show that boards of directors and human capital are significant variables in the extent of disclosure. Second, it is useful to managers, especially to boards of directors in Malaysia, in identifying board characteristics and human capital characteristics that could improve companies' environmental activities; these could be disclosed in the interest of stakeholders and the public's environmental concern. Third, this study can also be used as an initial step for companies in to be involved in environmental activities. Prior studies have proved that these activities could enhance companies' image and reputation and could offer financial benefits to the business. Originality/value – The study extends the previous studies by the inclusion of human capital characteristics as a factor that influences environmental reporting in Malaysia. This study has demonstrated that to mitigate the agency problems between firms and shareholders, society and stakeholders, and particularly environmental impact, the inclusion of human capital characteristics as an indicator may help to reduce expected costs and negative impacts on firm value, and may also demonstrate to society and the company's stakeholders that individual firms are doing their part to help solve society's social and environmental problems through additional disclosures.