This page provides information and links for climate-related publications authored by CSL members and collaborators (since summer of 2023, listed chronologically).
2023
Jorgenson, Andrew K., Brett Clark, Ryan P. Thombs, Jeffrey Kentor, Jennifer E. Givens, Xiaorui Huang, Hassan El Tinay, Daniel Auerbach, and Matthew C. Mahutga. “Guns Versus Climate: How Militarization Amplifies the Effect of Economic Growth on Carbon Emissions.” American Sociological Review 88(3):418-453.
Abstract: Building on cornerstone traditions in historical sociology, as well as work in environmental sociology and political-economic sociology, we theorize and investigate with moderation analysis how and why national militaries shape the effect of economic growth on carbon pollution. Militaries exert a substantial influence on the production and consumption patterns of economies, and the environmental demands required to support their evolving infrastructure. As far-reaching and distinct characteristics of contemporary militarization, we suggest that both the size and capital intensiveness of the world’s militaries enlarge the effect of economic growth on nations’ carbon emissions. In particular, we posit that each increases the extent to which the other amplifies the effect of economic growth on carbon pollution. To test our arguments, we estimate longitudinal models of emissions for 106 nations from 1990 to 2016. Across various model specifications, robustness checks, a range of sensitivity analyses, and counterfactual analysis, the findings consistently support our propositions. Beyond advancing the environment and economic growth literature in sociology, this study makes significant contributions to sociological research on climate change and the climate crisis, and it underscores the importance of considering the military in scholarship across the discipline.
American Sociological Association Podcast with lead author
Focus of Contexts 22(4):8 “Up Front In Brief” titled “The War on Climate”
Givens, Jennifer, Orla Kelly, and Andrew K. Jorgenson. “Inequality, Emissions, and Human Well-Being.” In Handbook of Inequality and the Environment, edited by Michael Long, Michael Lynch, and Paul Stretesky. Edward Elger Publishing.
Abstract: This chapter highlights the importance of incorporating inequality into studies of emissions and human well-being. We review the relevant sociological literature and demonstrate how well-being, emissions, and the relationship between the two are shaped by inequality. We also summarize how the nature of these relationships vary by context and scale. We briefly outline two approaches to addressing climate change to protect the planet and promote human well-being: global climate negotiations and social movements for climate justice. We conclude by discussing directions forward for research and policy.
2024
Jorgenson, Andrew. 2024. "Sociology and the Climate Crisis: A Momentum Surge and the Roots Run Deep." Sociological Forum 39(2):153-156.
Jorgenson, Andrew, Taekyeong Goh, Ryan Thombs, Yasmin Koop-Monteiro, Mark Shakespear, Nicolas Viens, and Grace Gletsu. 2024. "Economic Growth and Income Inequality Increase the Carbon Intensity of Human Well-Being for Canada's Provinces." npj Climate Action 3:58.
Abstract: Reducing the carbon intensity of human well-being (CIWB) is a potential form of climate action. We conduct a preliminary analysis of the effects of economic growth and income inequality on the CIWB of Canada’s provinces, and find that both increase CIWB in this sub-national context. We also find that their effects are symmetrical, meaning that positive and negative changes in economic growth and income inequality result in the same proportional changes in CIWB. Therefore, and while incredibly difficult to do, it is possible that efforts to reduce income inequality and economic growth are potential pathways to reducing CIWB.
Abstract: Will power plants emit less or more CO2 in anticipation of stronger climate policies that would strand fossil fuel reserves? Here, using a worldwide data source on individual power plants’ CO2 emissions and the value of countries’ at-risk fossil fuel assets, we show that between 2009 and 2018, plants emitted more CO2 in countries where more assets would be devalued under a 1.5 °C scenario, which we theorize is due to these countries’ regulatory leniency and plants’ vested interest in long-term fossil fuel contracts. Although the extra amount of carbon emitted each year trigged by imperiled assets is relatively small, it would exhaust a sizable portion of the electricity sector’s remaining carbon budget when added up over time. This is especially true in the U.S. and Russia where up to 16% and 12% of their budgets, respectively, could be spent within ten years due solely to the stranded asset effect.
Grant, Don, Wesley Longhofer, and Andrew Jorgenson. 2024. "Super Polluters." Pages 208-222 in Routledge Handbook of Climate Change and Society, edited by Stephen Brechin and Seungyun Lee. Routledge Press.
Abstract: Energy is the lifeblood of society as well as one if its greatest threats. Yet sociologists have been slow to analyze the role of energy and, in particular, the role of power plants that produce the world’s most harmful carbon emissions. In this chapter, we summarize a super polluters approach to understanding climate change as an organizational problem that combines insights from organizational sociology, world-systems scholarship, and world society theory. In particular, we focus on four issues: disproportionalities in the sources of pollution; the causal relevance of social and political conditions; the intended and unintended effects of energy efficiency; and the efficacy of local policies and activism. We conclude with a discussion of policy implications as well as applications of our approach to other types of super polluters.
Jorgenson, Andrew, Hassan El Tinay, Jared Fitzgerald, Jennifer Givens, Taekyeong Goh, Xiaorui Huang, Orla Kelly, Annika Rieger, and Ryan Thombs. 2024. “Advances in Research on Anthropogenic Drivers of Climate Change.” Pages 60-76 in Routledge Handbook of Climate Change and Society, edited by Stephen Brechin and Seungyun Lee. Routledge Press.
Abstract: This chapter provides an overview of advances in social science research on the anthropogenic drivers of climate change. Anthropogenic drivers refer to the social systems and human actions causing GHG emissions and societal factors shaping and conditioning those actions. The authors summarize the contemporary drivers research literature on (1) economic growth, (2) income and wealth inequality, (3) environmental load displacement and ecologically unequal exchange, (4) militarization, and (5) corporations. In addition to summarizing recent work, the authors identify future directions for each of these areas of research, as well as ways in which they can be better integrated.
2025
Jorgenson, Andrew, Taekyeong Goh, Ryan Thombs, Yasmin Koop-Monteiro, Mark Shakespear, Grace Gletsu, and Nicolas Viens. 2025. “Inequality is Driving the Climate Crisis: A Longitudinal Analysis of Province-Level Carbon Emissions in Canada, 1997-2020.” Energy Research & Social Science 119:103845.
Abstract: The authors conduct a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between carbon emissions and income inequality for the Canadian provinces for the 1997 to 2020 period. The results indicate that the short-run and long-run effects of the income share of the top 10% and the top 5% on province-level emissions are positive, robust to various model specifications, net of multiple demographic and economic factors, not sensitive to exogenous shocks or outlier cases, symmetrical, statistically equivalent for emissions from different sectors, and their short-term effects do not vary in magnitude through time. The findings also consistently show that the estimated effect of the Gini coefficient on province-level emissions is not statistically significant. Overall, the results underscore the importance in modeling the effects of income inequality measures that quantify different characteristics of income distributions, and they are very consistent with analytical approaches regarding power concentration, overconsumption, and status competition that suggest that a higher concentration of income leads to growth in anthropogenic carbon emissions.
Jorgenson, Andrew, Brett Clark, Ryan Thombs, Jeffrey Kentor, Taekyeong Goh, and Vincentas Giedraitis. Forthcoming. “Militarizing the Climate Crisis: An Analysis of the Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Militarization on Nations’ Carbon Emissions, 1990-2020.” Social Problems.
Abstract: Building on scholarship in global political economy, historical sociology, and environmental sociology, as well as emerging streams of research on militarization and climate change, we theorize about and successively investigate the short-run and long-run effects of two far-reaching characteristics of militarization on nations’ carbon emissions and the climate crisis in general. We contend that emergent and changing conditions associated with the capital-intensiveness and size of militaries shape path dependencies, which structure short-run and long-run effects on carbon pollution. To test our propositions, we estimate dynamic models of emissions for 104 nations from 1990 to 2020. Overall, the findings confirm our arguments. The short-run and long-run effects of the capital-intensiveness and size of militaries on carbon emissions are positive and nontrivial. Further, their estimated short-run and long-run effects are consistent across three distinct measures of carbon emissions, statistically symmetrical, robust to different modeling techniques, and not sensitive to any nations included in the analysis.
Jorgenson, Andrew, Jennifer Givens, Xiaorui Huang, and Hassan El Tinay. 2025. “Ecologically Unequal Exchange as a Catalyst for Climate Action.” In Oxford Handbook of Climate Action, edited by Paul Almeida. Oxford University Press.
Abstract: This chapter summarizes the theory of ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) and discusses its relevance for climate action. First, it summarizes the theory of EUE and describes its origins. Then it briefly discusses the importance of a global approach and details how research that utilizes EUE theory examines the production and unequal distribution of various environmental harms relevant for the climate crisis and human well-being. Next, it highlights research on the forces counteracting the harms and injustices of EUE and then explicitly connects EUE to climate justice and action. The chapter concludes by briefly applying Almeida et al.’s (2024) scheme of climate action, noting how forms of institutional and noninstitutional action may effectively challenge and restrict the climate-related impacts of EUE.