Environmental disasters and public-opinion formation: A natural experiment

Abstract

This study leverages the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident as natural experiment to determine the causal impact environmental disasters may have on the formation of environmental public opinion. Using Eurobarometer data on more than 60,000 individuals’ attitudes toward environmental salience before and after the incident, I find that Fukushima had indeed a causal effect on whether people see the environment as a salient policy item. This impact is more strongly pronounced for what respondents think dominates the political agenda than for personal priorities. These results have important implications for the understanding of how public opinion about the environment is formed, and they have crucial consequences for the suspected link between policymaking and public opinion.

Climate change experiences raise environmental concerns and promote Green voting

“…An increasing number of studies have considered the role experiences with climate change play on the formation of attitudes and concerns about environmental and climate issues. Existing evidence shows that people who have experienced unusual weather and extreme weather events are more likely to believe in the existence of global warming and its anthropogenic causes 15,16 , to express concern about climate change 17 , to show willingness to engage in mitigation actions 18 , and to be in favor of climate policies 19,20 .…”

Natural hazard insurance demand: A systematic review

“…It is important to note that Segal et al ( 2018 ) found that the prosocial behaviour existed amongst the individuals who attributed the event to a super natural agency. According to Böhmelt ( 2020 ), the salience on natural hazard insurance increases just after an event and it attenuates after a short period after the event (Dumm et al 2020 ) affirming the accession by stating that insurance take-ups spike just after the flood and then steadily decline to baseline. The study by Gallagher ( 2014 ) found that uptake from not affected areas also increased and is consistent with the Bayesian learning model that allows for forgetting or incomplete information about past events.…”

The transnational influence of natural disasters on environmental attitudes

“…That said, while the media do cover environmental issues abroad, such as global environmental conferences and summits, especially disasters in nearby countries, should attract media attention. Large-scale disasters, due to their intensity and high impact on human lives, will find thorough media attention across the globe (Böhmelt, 2020), but the occurrence of 'an average' event will be reported more extensively in nearby and directly adjacent states. This claim mirrors Benesch et al (2019) who find significant media spillovers between Germany and Switzerland, for instance, while Kwon et al (2017) contend that news coverage represents more 'culturally proximate' cases.…”