The Unsustainable State: Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Inequality, and Human Well-Being in the United States, 1913 to 2017

Abstract

A central premise of development strategies is that nations use natural resources, such as fossil fuels, to raise population living standards and enhance well-being. However, research shows that the relationship among human well-being, resource use, and the associated emissions is complex and context specific. To better understand if natural resource use plays a historic role in generating human well-being in the United States, the authors conduct a time-series analysis of greenhouse gas emissions and average life expectancy from 1913 to 2017. The results show that increases in greenhouse gas emissions per capita have an instantaneous, negative effect on life expectancy. The authors also find evidence that income inequality has a long-run negative effect on life expectancy. Additional analyses provide mixed results regarding whether and how the effects of emissions on life expectancy are conditional on income inequality. These findings contradict the assumption that reductions in emissions necessitate trade-offs in human well-being in high-income contexts.

Refocusing on nature: the role of nature reintegration in environmental, mental, and societal wellbeing

“…The prevalent focus on financial wealth and material comfort in modern societies and subsequent ignorance of the human-nature relationship has implications for pro-environmental behavior. Materialistic values have been shown to negatively impact such behavior ( Ahlström et al, 2020 ; Kelly et al, 2021 ), leading to increased environmental degradation. For example, populations in the lower 50% income bracket in the USA and some European countries are close to or already achieving 2030 per-capita emission targets ( Chancel, 2022 ).…”

Guns versus Climate: How Militarization Amplifies the Effect of Economic Growth on Carbon Emissions

“…A substantial body of sociological research consistently finds positive associations between nations’ carbon emissions and economic growth. Longitudinal studies indicate that the positive relationship increases in magnitude through time for less affluent nations, while remaining large and relatively stable for more affluent nations (Jorgenson 2014; Jorgenson and Clark 2012; Knight and Schor 2014; Thombs 2018a; Thombs and Huang 2019; Vesia, Mahutga, and Buì 2021; see also Adua, York, and Schuelke-Leech 2016; Burns, Davis, and Kick 1997; Greiner 2022; Huang 2018; Huang and Jorgenson 2018; Hyde and Vachon 2019; Kelly, Thombs, and Jorgenson 2021; Mejia 2021; Rosa et al 2004; Soener 2019; York 2012). This corpus of research supports the general arguments of the more critical sociological approaches, and it has gained increased recognition among the climate change mitigation community (e.g., Haberl et al 2020; IPCC 2022; Keyßer and Lenzen 2021).…”

Community Seed Groups: Biological and Especially Social Investigations Can Support Crisis Response Capacity

“…If no citation is provided, statements regarding the organizations are the words of the representative coauthor. The Anthropocene has intensified the interconnection between the social and biophysical challenges facing humanity locally and globally (e.g., Kelly, Thombs, and Jorgenson 2021), and has increased the need to expand engagement in science. Some see the recent growth in CCS as a necessary part of our response to the Anthropocene's extensive, intertwined social and biophysical challenges (Pandya 2014).…”