National Academies Press: OpenBook

Environmentally Significant Consumption: Research Directions (1997)

Chapter: ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

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Suggested Citation:"ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS." National Research Council. 1997. Environmentally Significant Consumption: Research Directions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5430.
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Page 138
Suggested Citation:"ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS." National Research Council. 1997. Environmentally Significant Consumption: Research Directions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5430.
×
Page 139
Suggested Citation:"ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS." National Research Council. 1997. Environmentally Significant Consumption: Research Directions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5430.
×
Page 140
Suggested Citation:"ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS." National Research Council. 1997. Environmentally Significant Consumption: Research Directions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5430.
×
Page 141
Suggested Citation:"ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS." National Research Council. 1997. Environmentally Significant Consumption: Research Directions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5430.
×
Page 142
Suggested Citation:"ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS." National Research Council. 1997. Environmentally Significant Consumption: Research Directions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5430.
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Page 143

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138 ENVIRONMENTALLY SIGNIFICANT CONSUMPTION About the Contributors DAVID T. ALLEN is Beckman Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining the faculty at the University of Texas, Dr. Allen was professor and chairman of the Chemical Engineer- ing Department at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research has been in the field of environmental reaction engineering, focusing par- ticularly on issues related to air quality and pollution prevention. He is the author of three books and over 80 papers in these areas. He has received a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Sci- ence Foundation and an award in industrial ecology from the AT&T Foun- dation. Dr. Allen is active in developing pollution-prevention education materials for engineering curricula. He received his B.S. degree in chemi- cal engineering from Cornell University. His M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering were awarded by the California Institute of Tech- nology. He has held visiting faculty appointments at the California Insti- tute of Technology and the Department of Energy. THOMAS DIETZ is professor of sociology at George Mason University. He holds a B.G.S. from Kent State University and a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of California, Davis. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is past- president of the Society for Human Ecology. His research interests in- clude the evolutionary dynamics of culture, the use of scientific informa- tion in policy processes, and the determinants of environmentally signifi- cant behavior. He is coauthor of The Risk Professionals and coeditor of the 138

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS 139 Handbook for Environmental Planning and Human Ecology: Crossing Bound- aries. FAYE DUCHIN is Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rensslaer Polytechnic Institute. In 1985 she succeeded Wassily Leontief as director of the Institute for Economic Analysis at New York University, where for 20 years she studied economic, technological and social change and their implications for the environment in developed and developing economies. Her most recent book, Changing Lifestyles: the Social Dimen- sion of Structural Economies, follows upon an in-depth assessment of strat- egies for sustainable development prepared for the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. She has been an AT&T Fellow in Industrial Ecology, a fellow of the United Nations University in Tokyo, an officer of the Inter- national Society for Ecological Economics, and a founding managing edi- tor of the international journal, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics. She received a B.A. degree in psychology from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley. WILLETT KEMPTON is assistant professor in the College of Marine Stud- ies, University of Delaware, senior policy scientist at the university’s Cen- ter for Energy and Environmental Policy, and assistant professor in the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy. His scholarly articles cover topics such as the American citizens’ understanding of global climate change, international comparisons of citizens’ and policymakers’ envi- ronmental perspectives, beliefs and behavior regarding home energy, en- ergy efficiency policies, and factors that move citizens to environmental action. He is coauthor of Environmental Values in American Culture. LOREN LUTZENHISER is associate professor of sociology, associate re- search scientist in rural sociology, and a member of the graduate faculty in environmental science and regional planning at Washington State Uni- versity. His research interests include the social organization of technical systems and the relationship between culture, consumption, and the natu- ral environment. His work has focused on social patterns of energy use in households, the role of behavior in energy systems, issues in energy policy and environmental justice, and institutional barriers to innovation in en- ergy efficiency. Dr. Lutzenhiser is currently engaged in comparative stud- ies of consumption and policy modeling in the U.S. and Europe. He received a Ph.D. degree in sociology from the University of California at Davis. CHRISTOPHER PAYNE is a senior research associate with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a graduate research assistant with the Cen-

140 ENVIRONMENTALLY SIGNIFICANT CONSUMPTION ter for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware, and a consultant to the nonprofit Society for Energy Efficiency. His re- search interests include energy-efficiency investment behavior in the small commercial and industrial sector, environmental identity formation in the workplace and home, the role of organizations in shaping environ- mental values, the formation of environmentally beneficial federal pro- curement policies, and the development of implementation of effective public policy. He has a B.A. in physics with a concentration in technology and policy studies from Carleton College and an M.S. in science and technology studies from Rensselaer Potytechnic Institute. He is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Delaware’s College of Urban Affairs and Public Policy. EUGENE A. ROSA is professor and chair of sociology, professor of envi- ronmental science and regional planning, faculty associate in the social and economic sciences research center, and Edward R. Meyer Distin- guished Professor of natural resource and environmental policy in the Thomas F. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washing- ton State University. He is currently secretary of Section K (social, eco- nomic, and political sciences) of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science (AAAS). His research program has focused on environmental topics—particularly energy, technology, and risk issues— with attention to both theoretical and policy concerns. Among his publi- cations are the coedited books: Public Reactions to Nuclear Power: Are There Critical Masses?, and Public Reactions to Nuclear Waste: Citizens’ Views of Repository Sitting. He received his B.S. from the Rochester Institute of Technology and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. VERNON W. RUTTAN is a Regents’ Professor in the Departments of Economics and Applied Economics and an adjunct professor in the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. From 1961-1963 he served as a staff member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, and from 1973-1978 he was president of the Agricul- tural Development Council. His research has been in the fields of agricul- tural development, resource economics, and research policy. Ruttan is the author of Agricultural Development: An International Perspective and Agriculture, Environment, and Health: Sustainable Development in the 21st Century, and the coauthor of Agricultural Research Policy. His most recent book is United States Development Assistance Policy: The Domestic Politics of Foreign Economic Aid. Ruttan has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, and to membership in the National Academy of

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS 141 Sciences. He received his B.A. from Yale University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. LEE J. SCHIPPER is a staff senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Labo- ratory, University of California, Berkeley, and coleader of the Interna- tional Energy Studies group. He is also associated with the Stockholm Environment Institute. He is on leave to the International Energy Agency, Paris, France, until the end of 1997. Dr. Schipper has authored over 75 technical papers on energy economics, energy use, and energy conserva- tion around the world. His is the coauthor of Energy Efficiency and Human Activity: Past Trends, Future Prospects, and Coming in from the Cold: En- ergy-Wise Housing from Sweden. He has focused his research on energy use in households, transportation, and indicators of economy-wide energy utilization. His most recent research has been examining the links among transportation, human lifestyles and mobility, emissions, and the envi- ronment. Dr. Schipper received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. ROBERT H. SOCOLOW is professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engi- neering and director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Princeton University. His research interests include industrial ecology of metals, anthropogenic modifications of the carbon and nitrogen cycles, and energy end-use efficiency in transportation and buildings. He served as chair of the board of the American Council for an Energy-Efficiency Economy (ACEEE) from 1989-1993. In 1995, he was a member on the Fusion Review Panel of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Currently, he is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and serves on the board of the National Audubon Society. He is the coauthor of Boundaries of Analysis: An Inquiry into the Tocks Island Dam Controversy; Energy Conservation: Proceedings of the Soviet-American Sympo- sium, Moscow, June 1985; and Industrial Ecology and Global Change. He is also the editor of Annual Review of Energy and Environment. He earned his B.A and Ph.D. from Harvard University in physics. PAUL C. STERN is study director of the Committee on the Human Di- mensions of Global Change and the Committee on International Conflict Resolution at the National Research Council, research professor of sociol- ogy at George Mason University, and president of the Social and Environ- mental Research Institute. In his major research area, the human dimen- sions of environmental problems, he has written numerous scholarly articles, coedited Energy Use: The Human Dimension and Global Environ- mental Change: Understanding the Human Dimensions, and coauthored the

142 ENVIRONMENTALLY SIGNIFICANT CONSUMPTION textbook Environmental Problems and Human Behavior. He is a member of the Working Group on Perception and Assessment of Global Environ- mental Change of the International Human Dimensions Program on Glo- bal Environmental Change and a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- ence. He has also authored a textbook on social science research methods and coedited several books on international conflict issues. He holds a B.A. from Amherst College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in psychology from Clark University. JAMES L. SWEENEY is chair of the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems and Operations Research at Stanford University. His has fo- cused his research on the application of economic methods and math- ematical modeling, particularly to natural resources issues, energy eco- nomics, environmental economics, competitive analysis, and policy analysis. He periodically serves as a consultant or advisor to Exxon, Atlantic Richfield, Enerco New Zealand, Todd Petroleum, Shell Petro- leum, the American Petroleum Institute, Charles River Associates, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of En- ergy. He has served as coeditor of Resource and Energy Economics and currently serves on the editorial board of The Energy Journal. He was a founding member of the International Association of Energy Economics and has served as its vice-president for publications. He has written several articles for Econometrica, Journal of Economic Theory, Management Science, and Journal of Urban Economics. He holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and received his Ph.D in engineering-economic systems from Stanford University. IDDO K. WERNICK is a research associate in the Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University. His current research covers long-term patterns of natural resource use and technology development in the United States and the resulting environmental consequences. Spe- cifically, this work concentrates on analyzing the flow of materials in the U.S. economy. He has also investigated environmental causes of mortal- ity and the technical and political context for community risk assessment. He received his B.S. in physics at the University of California at Los Ange- les and his Ph.D. in applied physics from Columbia University for experi- mental work with the free electron laser. RICHARD R. WILK is an associate professor of anthropology at Indiana University. He has taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and New Mexico State University, and served as a rural sociologist with the U. S. Agency for International Development. His research has fo-

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS 143 cused on household organization and decision making, consumer behav- ior in developing countries, and sustainable development. He has con- ducted field research on energy use in households in California, on West- ern consumer goods in West African markets, and on household decision making, migration, development, and consumer culture in the Central American country of Belize. His work on human nature and decision making in different cultures forms the basis for his recently published book Economies and Cultures: Foundations of Economic Anthropology. He received his undergraduate degree in anthropology from New York Uni- versity and his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Arizona.

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There has been much polemic about affluence, consumption, and the global environment. For some observers, "consumption" is at the root of global environmental threats: wealthy individuals and societies use far too much of the earth's resource base and should scale back their appetites to preserve the environment for future generations and allow a decent life for the rest of the world. Other observers see affluence as the way to escape environmental threats: economic development increases public pressure for environmental protection and makes capital available for environmentally benign technologies. The arguments are fed by conflicting beliefs, values, hopes, and fears—but surprisingly little scientific analysis.

This book demonstrates that the relationship of consumption to the environment needs careful analysis by environmental and social scientists and conveys some of the excitement of treating the issue scientifically. It poses the key empirical questions: Which kinds of consumption are environmentally significant? Which actors are responsible for that consumption? What forces cause or explain environmentally significant consumption? How can it be changed? The book presents studies that open up important issues for empirical study: Are there any signs of saturation in the demand for travel in wealthy countries? What is the relationship between environmental consumption and human well-being? To what extent do people in developing countries emulate American consumption styles? The book also suggests broad strategies that scientists and research sponsors can use to better inform future debates about the environment, development, and consumption.

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