Technology alone isn’t likely to rescue our planet from the detrimental environmental impacts of industrialization and other human activities, according to a WSU researcher and leader in developing a way to scientifically model and assess human-environment interactions.
Through the creation of a research program called STIRPAT, WSU Sociologist Eugene A. Rosa and colleagues at the
The research program, which can assess the relative environmental impact individual nations exert on the planet, persistently identifies population size as the major factor behind how much each country impacts the global environment. But STIRPAT demonstrates also that there are factors creating dramatic inequities in the amount of resource consumption and waste emissions between the earth’s nations. In fact, another leading factor that influences a nation’s impact on the environment of the planet,
“With few exceptions, we find that national impacts increase with affluence, providing little support for the popular hypothesis that predicts a decline in a nation’s environmental impacts in the mature stages of economic development,” he said. “This suggests we’re not likely to achieve ecological sustainability by continuing to pursue endless economic growth, ignoring our growing population and hoping for a last-minute technological fix that will solve our problems.”
Rosa is currently the Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of Natural Resource and Environmental Policy in the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service, past chair and professor of Sociology, affiliated professor of Fine Arts, affiliated professor in Environmental Science and Regional Planning, and faculty associate in the Center for Integrated Biology.
