Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Abstract: In a controversial 1967 speech titled “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis”, historian Lynn White claimed that religion, especially Judeo-Christian theology, resulted in weaker environmental attitudes.
Established literature is divided on the existence of a significant association between belief in Judeo-Christian religions and environmental views. While some studies initially supported the claim that Judeo-Christian adherents tended to have weaker environmental views (Hand & Van Liere, 1984; Weigel, 1977; Kellert & Berry, 1980), more recent literature, once controlling for political and socioeconomic variables, has been largely unable to replicate this association (Greeley, 1993; Guth et al. 1993, 1995; Eckberg & Blocker, 1996; Woodrum & Wolkomir, 1997). Moreover, outside the US, several cross-national studies have been unable to find any consistent difference between the environmental behaviour of Judeo-Christians and non-Judeo-Christians (Ester & Seuren, 1992; Dekker et al., 1997; Hayes & Marangudakis, 2000).
Although causation cannot be inferred from my observational study, my research finds that even after controlling for political orientation and socioeconomic factors (race, income and education level), belief in Judeo-Christian religions is significantly and negatively associated with views on the seriousness of global warming and support for specific greenhouse gas reduction policies, contradicting some of the most recent literature on the topic. As a supplementary finding, socioeconomic factors were not significantly associated with views on global warming with the notable exception of a significant racial difference between Whites and African Americans across the three metrics used to gauge views on global warming. As the sample size (N=929) is relatively small, however, further research is needed to replicate my results.
QAC-Winter-Poster