Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Charlotte Zapletal
Charlotte is a sophomore studying Earth & Environmental Sciences and Data Analysis at Wesleyan, and is currently using methods of data analysis like GIS and R to study wildfire ecology in the Southwest US. She is also a member of the Women’s Lacrosse team.
Abstract:
The current scientific literature has studied the association between support for renewable energy initiatives and belief in global warming at length. However, there is a lack of research in the specific study of the relationship between support for renewable energy and views of the severity of global warming, as well as other factors such as gender and whether someone’s region has experienced the impacts of global warming. Support for renewable energy, views of the severity of global warming, gender, and all other variables in the dataset were all measured with questions according to the variable levels. The research questions posed were: (1) Is there a relationship between support for renewable energy initiatives and views of the severity of global warming? (2) Does the relationship between support for renewable energy initiatives and views of the severity of global warming differ based on gender and whether someone’s state has already felt the negative effects of global warming?
When examining the association between support for renewable energy (binary categorical response) and views of severity of global warming (categorical explanatory), a chi-square test of independence revealed that among those who held views that global warming is less severe, more people held low support for renewable energy initiatives (82%) compared to less people who held high support for renewable energy initiatives (18%). Views of the severity of global warming and whether an individual’s state has already felt the effects of global warming were both associated with support for renewable energy after controlling for gender. The more serious a problem an individual believes global warming is, the more likely they are to support renewable energy initiatives. Similarly, an individual who believes their state has already felt the negative effects of global warming is more likely to support renewable energy initiatives (1.6 times) than an individual who believes their state has not felt the negative effects of global warming.
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