Tag Archives: politics

Research Example (Shaiko’s Political, Environmental, and Religious Research)

Shaiko, R. G. (1987). Religion, politics, and environmental concern: A powerful mix of passions. Social Science Quarterly (University Of Texas Press), 68(2), 244-262.

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Shaiko introduces the topic of religion and the environment by talking about Lynn White (1967) and his lecture stating that  it was the Judeo-Christian belief of divine creation and man dominion-over-nature that has thrown the United States into an ecological crisis. Shaiko hopes to look into what role politics plays in this idea, since Hand and Van Liere (1984) had just done a analysis of Lynn White’s lecture if religious views had an affect on environmental views and found a certain amount of correlation.

Shaiko believes that using data from just a single survey cannot prove or disprove anything and thus validates the research being done here by saying that the relationships discovered here are still a valid indicator (and this also leaves open the door for people to do more research).

Data that was used in this study were surveys that were collected by Mitchell (1978) as these surveys were sent out to environmental groups. Shaiko asserts that there is a difference of opinion that can be seen in environmentalists versus ordinary United States citizens.

This study was analyzing for mastery-over-nature,  environmental issues [of importance], and how religious affiliations play into all of this.

The results show that the idea of a dichotomy between Judeo-Christian and otherwise does not show adequately the relationship between religious views and environmental views. Shaiko also seems to indicate that the time frame is also important in this analysis because many denominations are changing their doctrines on nature. This might suggest that perhaps the best thing to see if Lynn White was correct is to go find survey data before his time. The results did find that there was a relationship between the stewardship view of environmentalism in the Judeo-Christian belief. It also found that politics make a difference.

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Also Referenced:

Hand, Carl M., and Kent D. Van Uere. 1984. “Religion, Mastery-over-Nature, and Environmental Concern,” Social forces, 63 (December):555-70.

Mitchell, Robert C. 1978. “Testing a Theory of Collective Action with Data on a Contemporary Social Movement.” Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C. Data set available through the Roper Organization, Storrs, Conn., archive no. USMISCRFFENVRN78.

White, Lynn, Jr. 1967. “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” Science, 155 (10
March):1203-7.

Research Example (Religious Beliefs and Environmental Policy)

Guth, J. L., J. C. Green, L. A. Kellstedt, and C. E. Smidt. 1995. Faith and the environment:Religious beliefs and attitudes on environmental policy. American Journal of Political Science. 39(2), 364–382.

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The researchers of this article talk about a few different issues with how environmental data and religious data are collected, saying that there are more complex views than can be captured in surveys and thus some results may not be as accurate because of that.

They also bring up a point that many articles focusing on religion and the environment have missed, and that is the role of politics with religion or the environment.  Sometimes it is said that an individual’s political views determine what their environmental views are. However, in this article they talk about how religion is very important in political views. So there is some sort of relationship between the three that is still being explored.

Despite the researchers’ belief that politics are important in the analysis of the relationship between environmental views and religious views, in this study they focused once again on environmental views and their relationship to religious views, specifically three factors in religious views: beliefs, traditions, and commitments. They focus on biblical literalism and End Times Thinking (Eschatology), mostly in the conservative Protestant Christian belief. They do, however, take into account political factors.

The researchers used four data sets that focused on a variety of things, but had appropriate religious and environmental variables. The results were varied, but they indicate strong correlations with political-identity variables. In fact it seems as though politics and eschatology were very important controlling variables (since this was a regression test).

As usual, this research left as many questions as it did answers. It has significant correlation information on conservative eschatology, religious tradition, and religious commitment, but notes that there is a lot of questions unanswered on what determines the religious views that are seen in this research.

 

Research Example #6 (Environmental Education and Politics)

Crouch, R., & Abbot, D. S. (2009). Is Green Education Blue or Red? State-Level Environmental Education Program Development Through the Lens of Red- and Blue-State Politics. Journal Of Environmental Education, 40(3), 52-62.

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Environmental Education (EE) programs are greatly controversial because, as seen when looking at political views and the environment, not everyone believes that the same things are happening with the environment. Because of this, the question is whether to let schools teach about environmental issues. The purpose of this research article by Crouch and Abbot is to see whether there is a difference in state-level Environmental Education program activity in Republican and Democratic states.

The article starts with the idea that liberal/Democratic views are the major environmental views and conservative/Republican views are the non-environmental views. In order to see what the effect is on the Environmental Education programs in Democratic schools as opposed to Republican schools, Crouch and Abbot took survey results from 1995 that evaluated certain points that comprehensive Environmental Education programs should have.

The survey was conducted by another group of researchers who had already identified the components that a successful Environmental Education program should have and did a survey to see what schools were following it. They got results from all 50 states, with a total of 173 EE leaders in different areas around the United States. The survey was designed to figure out what states had comprehensive Environmental Education programs or if they were being developed.

In order to do this research, Crouch and Abbot took the results of the Environmental Education survey that showed how each state was doing, and compared them to the state’s past election history of being Democratic or Republican. The researchers did correlation tests to see if there was any pattern here.

The results were that political affiliation did not seem to effect whether a state had a good or bad Environmental  Education program. They did point out that their probability was not as good as they would wish. I also have the complaint that taking this data at the state level seems a little large, and that coupled with the probability makes this data a little less reliable than I would like to use as a reference.

Research Example #5 (Politics and the Environment)

Dunlap, R. E., & McCright, A. M. (2008). A Widening Gap: Republican and Democratic Views on Climate Change. Environment, 50(5), 26-35.

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It has been assumed time and time again that individuals with a Democratic view will usually be more environmental. This article is taking that idea with a specific example, global warming. They are asking whether Democrats and Republicans see Global Warming in different views.

The article begins with a history of environmental awareness as it relates to politics. Environmental policies use to be nonpartisan, but this changed in the 1980s when the Reagan (Republican) administration called environmental regulations a financial burden. Since then, these researchers believe, there has been a growing divide between parties about environmental regulation, with the Democrats being more for it and the Republicans being more against it.

The article does note that the views on Climate Change, which they are measuring in the article, are the most noticeable environmental gap between the two parties. So using this to see if Democrats and Republicans are different on willingness to consider environmental problems might be a bit bias.

This research article looked at the Gallup poles from 1997 all the way to 2008 and it showed indeed a widening gap between Republicans and Democrats. Less Republicans in 2008 believe that the effects of Global Warming have already begun than in 1997, while more Democrats believe it. This trend is also true for who believes that Global Warming is exaggerated in the news and who believes that humans are the cause. Also, even though not a lesser amount of Republicans in 2008 believe that scientists agree about Global Warming and that Global Warming might pose a threat to them, the amount is not rising as much as Democrats.

The report ended on the note that Republicans and Democrats were definitely making a gap in their views about Global Warming and it seems to be getting wider.

I did have some criticisms of this article. I had to double-check that it was peer-reviewed because it is more of a flashy article and seemed to be trying to grab attention more than clearly state facts. Some of the correlations seemed a bit low to use as evidence that can be graphed as well. However, this was very informative to me and a surprisingly little amount of research has been done on politics in the United States and environmental views.