The impacts of technology: a re-evaluation of the STIRPAT model

McGee, Julius Alexander; Clement, Matthew Thomas; Besek, Jordan Fox

doi:10.1080/23251042.2014.1002193

Cited by 40 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Numerous empirical assessments of the relationship between urbanization and energy consumption (one of the main ways urbanization contributes to CO 2 emissions) have found that urbanization increases energy use [14, 15, 16] as well as CO 2 emissions [17, 18, 19]. However, recent analyses have found that the relationship between urbanization and CO 2 emissions is not monolithic and varies based on region and type of urban development [20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26]. Overall, these studies suggest that the relationship between urbanization and CO 2 emissions in developing countries, to a large extent, is different from in developed countries.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymmetric relationship of urbanization and CO2 emissions in less developed countries

McGee

York

2018

PLoS ONE

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Understanding the relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the urbanization of national populations has been a key concern for environmental scholars for several decades. Although sophisticated modeling techniques have been developed to explore the connection between increases in urban populations and CO2 emissions, none has attempted to assess whether declines in urbanization have an effect on emissions that is not symmetrical with that of growth in urbanization. The present study uses panel data on CO2 emissions and the percentage of individuals living in urban areas, as well as a variety of other structural factors, for less-developed countries from 1960–2010, to empirically assess whether the effect of growth in urban populations on emissions is symmetrical with the effect of decline. Findings indicate that the effect of growth/decline in urban populations on CO2 emissions is asymmetrical, where a decline in urbanization reduces emissions to a much greater degree than urbanization increases emissions. We hypothesize that this is at least in part because deurbanization is connected with disruptions to the production and distribution of goods and services and/or access to electricity and other energy sources. Our finding suggests that not only the absolute level of urbanization of nations matters for emissions, but also how the patterns of migration between rural and urban areas change over time. Future research should be mindful of the processes behind deurbanization when exploring socioeconomic drivers of CO2 emissions.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymmetric relationship of urbanization and CO2 emissions in less developed countries

McGee

York

2018

PLoS ONE

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“…Such findings were built upon and complicated by Liddle (2014) whose work demonstrated the importance of accounting for the demographic age structure of populations in such studies. These contributions continue to be built upon further still, as is well exemplified by recent work that incorporated spatial regression analysis into the traditional STIRPAT formulation in order to illustrate the need to conceptualize the effect of urbanization as a phenomenon that brings about environmental impact in both technological (e.g., spatial) and demographic capacities (McGee et al, 2015).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The independent variable of interest in the present study is time, which is a continuous variable measured in years from 1960 to 2011. Here, I follow previous work in the SHE tradition, and attempt to capture the effect of technology, which is traditionally viewed as being captured in the residual term of models by disaggregating a model component that encompasses many other relevant factors (Dietz, 2013;Jorgenson, 2013;McGee et al, 2015). However, while many researchers have attempted to capture the impact of technology by disaggregating variables that are known to be fundamental drivers of environmental impact-such as population (Liddle, 2014;Roberts, 2011), or affluence (Shi, 2003;Wang et al, 2013) (2015) in that, where they attempt to capture technology by incorporating a measure of impervious surface development in a nation, I capture the effect of technology and ecological rationales among populations and policy-makers by disaggregating the temporal variable.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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2019

HER

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In this exploratory work, we investigate the relationship between the role identity "farmer" and farmers' land management practices using data from 30 semistructured interviews with farmers in southeastern Idaho. Guided by social identity principles, we examine how farmers' collective identity influences environmental attitudes and behaviors. Overall, we find that most farmers have implemented some conservation practices on their land, particularly those related to soil and water, and see themselves and other farmers as good environmental stewards. However, we also find that many of their chosen conservation practices required little to no sacrifice, and in addition to benefiting the environment, were also cost-minimizing business decisions. We find that as a group, these farmers' beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are largely focused on productive efficiency. We argue that this focus often puts them in competition with other social groups, which ultimately reinforces group saliency and adversely affects relations between farmers and other groups seeking to influence farming practices.

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“…As is now common in structural human ecology analyses drawing from the "stochastic impacts by regression on population affluence and technology" tradition, all variables included in the models presented below are natural log transformed (e.g., McGee et al 2015). The result of such a transformation is that the coefficients presented are elasticities, where the coefficient represents the percentage change in CIWB associated with a 1 percent change in the independent variable of interest.…”

Section: Data and Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Urbanization Good for the Climate? A Cross-County Analysis of Impervious Surface, Affluence, and the Carbon Intensity of Well-Being

Greiner

Shtob

Besek

2020

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

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We contribute to literature exploring the socioecological impact of urban development as a multidimensional project, one in which changes to landscape features complement changes in demographic and administrative measures to co-constitute the socioecological impact of urbanity. We use a random coefficients modeling approach to examine U.S. relationships between the intensity of impervious surface within a county, population density in impervious areas, and carbon intensity of well-being (CIWB)—here constructed using industrial emissions. We then explore the moderating association that another component of social settlement patterns, household median income, has on the impervious surface–population density–CIWB nexus. Findings suggest that landscapes featuring greater development of impervious surface are associated with increased CIWB. Further exploration indicates that income acts to attenuate the association of urban space and CIWB. Ultimately, we argue that such attenuation indicates that more affluent areas are able to shift production-based processes associated with urban forms to less affluent areas.

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The impacts of technology: a re-evaluation of the STIRPAT model

Cited by 40 publications

References 43 publications

Asymmetric relationship of urbanization and CO2 emissions in less developed countries

Asymmetric relationship of urbanization and CO2 emissions in less developed countries

Untitled

Is Urbanization Good for the Climate? A Cross-County Analysis of Impervious Surface, Affluence, and the Carbon Intensity of Well-Being

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