Abstract
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.
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Notes
The survey could be accessed online via http://www.src.ust.hk/survey/GSS2003e1.html.
I choose these 13 questions because they have the highest response rate. In other words, I can maximize the sample size by having the majority of respondents answer all questions that relate to this paper.
The exchange rate in 2003 shows that US$1 equals 8.27 Chinese RMB.
The data for average NO2 concentration is for the year of 2003. I did not find the data for the total amount of wastewater discharge in 2003, so I use the data from 2004 instead.
The statistical tests show that the distribution of household income, NO2 emission, and the total amount of wastewater discharge are positively skewed (heavier right tails).
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Acknowledgments
I would like to express gratitude to Professor Hong Dayong and the National Survey Research Center at Renmin University of China for providing the CGSS data. I would like to express gratitude to Dr. Don A. Dillman, Dr. G. Leonard Burns, and two anonymous reviewers of the journal for their insightful comments.
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Hao, F. The effect of economic affluence and ecological degradation on Chinese environmental concern: a multilevel analysis. J Environ Stud Sci 4, 123–131 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-014-0166-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-014-0166-z