Adam Mayer's research while affiliated with Michigan State University and other places
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Publications (63)
Understanding social and environmental impacts and household adaptation strategies in the face of expansions in energy infrastructure projects is essential to inform mitigation and interventions programs that promote well-being. Here we conducted surveys in seven communities distributed across varying degrees of proximity to a hydropower dam comple...
Tense global politics, spikes in gas prices and increasingly urgent warnings about climate change raise questions over the future use of natural gas. UK longitudinal survey data reveal that beliefs about climate change increasingly reduced support for gas extraction between 2019 and 2022. Mounting public connections between climate and gas use sugg...
Partisanship is one of the largest and most studied social barriers to climate change mitigation in the United States. Here we expand conceptualizations of ‘left-right’ or ‘Democrat-Republican’ towards understanding partisanship as a multidimensional social identity with both negative and positive elements. Partisan support or opposition for climat...
Millions of people across the world live off-grid not by choice but because they live in rural areas, have low income, and have no political clout. Delivering sustainable energy solutions to such a substantial amount of the world’s population requires more than a technological fix; it requires leveraging the knowledge of underserved populations wor...
Since the early 1990s, political polarization has been the largest determinant of individual-level environmental and climate change attitudes. But several patterns remain unclear: whether polarization has been largely bimodal or is rather asymmetrical, how polarization patterns have changed over time, and if these patterns are generalizable across...
Partisanship is one of the largest and most studied social barriers to climate change mitigation in the United States. Here we expand conceptualizations of 'left-right' or 'Republican-Democrat' towards understanding partisanship as a multidimensional social identity with both negative and positive elements. Partisan support or opposition for climat...
Prominent conspiracy beliefs, such as QAnon or 2020 Presidential Election beliefs, constitute a unique form of conspiracy theories that are often explicitly partisan, "politically instrumental conspiracy theories" (PICTs). PICTs can spread rapidly, quickly becoming consensus beliefs among partisan in-groups. But PICTs are not necessarily deeply hel...
The construction of hydroelectric dams is associated with a range of social-ecological impacts, including significant changes in the economies of rural places where large dams are built. Dam builders and governments promoting hydropower have implemented compensation programs to redress the damages done by hydropower projects but there are critiques...
The United States coal industry is in a slow death spiral, primarily because of the abundance of inexpensive natural gas and the emergence of renewables. Although transitioning from coal is essential for decarbonization and provides many dividends for public health, the looming implosion of the industry creates difficulties for workers and communit...
Energy infrastructure projects have long been associated with a lack of participation by impacted, local populations—this history is evident in the case of hydropower projects in the Global South. Ever since the World Commission on Dams’ Report (WCD 2000), there has been substantive evidence, and numerous recommendations, that have called on govern...
Background
Access to reliable energy services is increasingly seen as a prerequisite for well-being and human development. Copious research documents the negative consequences that occur when nations specialize in natural resource production, creating a “natural resource curse” or “paradox of plenty”. In this analysis, we evaluate how natural resou...
While there have been efforts to supply off-grid energy in the Amazon, these attempts have focused on low upfront costs and deployment rates. These “get-energy-quick” methods have almost solely adopted diesel generators, ignoring the environmental and social risks associated with the known noise and pollution of combustion engines. Alternatively, i...
The U.S. energy sector has undergone significant changes in the last few decades with three converging trends – the implosion of the coal industry, the marked increase in domestically produced oil and gas, and the increasing viability of renewables. The implosion of coal has proven to be a contentious political issue, with conservative discourse pl...
Nations in the Global South have increasingly embraced large hydropower. Hydropower development typically involves the displacement and resettlement of entire communities and has a range of social and ecological impacts. Some communities become the operational center for the dam construction, as well as host new neighborhoods of resettlers. One of...
In the United States, unconventional oil and gas (UOG) production has elicited strong public response. As production occurs amid residential and commercial spaces, environmental, social, economic, regulatory, and mental health impacts have been documented across locations. Some community groups have mobilized against this activity, whereas others h...
The U.S. energy system has changed markedly in the past few decades, with a transition away from coal and towards natural gas and renewables. The implosion of the coal industry brings many environmental and public health benefits. However, several state governments and the administration of former President Trump launched a variety of initiatives t...
Nations in the global South have developed hydropower projects at a rapid pace in recent decades, most notably Brazil and China. These projects have long-documented impacts on social and ecological systems, yet the implications of hydropower for human well-being and health are not fully understood. In this paper, we examine eight Brazilian Amazon c...
Response rates for surveys have declined steadily over the last few decades. During this period, trust in science has also waned and conspiratorial theorizing around scientific issues has seemingly become more prevalent. In our prior work, we found that a significant portion of respondents will claim that a given survey is “biased.” In this follow-...
Nations in the Global South have turned to massive hydropower projects to provide for the energy needs of their growing economies. Large-scale hydropower projects cause untold environmental damage to river ecosystems, to fish biodiversity, and displace millions of people globally. Much research documents these impacts, yet we do not know if these p...
In the last few decades, the United States has experienced several related and significant societal trends—the transition of the energy system away from coal, the intensification of partisan polarization, and the rise of a populist right-wing political ideology, perhaps best exemplified by the election of Donald Trump. We build Gramling and Freuden...
The relationship between proximity to energy development and public support is inconsistent. Research indicates that proximity to fossil fuels is associated with higher support for that fuel source, yet these relationships vary across time and space and have rarely been studied for renewable energy. We use two waves of a U.S. national survey and no...
Research reveals that a “finite pool of worry” constrains concern about and action on climate change. Nevertheless, a longitudinal panel survey of 1,858 UK residents, surveyed in April 2019 and June 2020, reveals little evidence for diminishing climate change concern during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the sample identifies climate change as a b...
For decades, the governance regimes of the United States and many other nations have increasingly devolved authority from central federal governments to substantially weaker state and local governments and even private industry. This trend produces uneven results for affected spaces and modes of governance. At the same time, industries have been re...
The global energy system is changing rapidly. In the United States, the most significant shift has been the move away from coal towards natural gas and renewables. Yet political leaders and some media outlets frame coal as a reliable baseload fuel source while decrying renewables as overly expensive and unreliable, suggesting that the decline of th...
Domestic, onshore oil and gas production has increased substantially in the United States in the last ∼20 years, creating a range of positive and negative impacts on communities. In this paper, we add to the growing literature on unconventional oil and gas production (a.k.a., “fracking”) and well-being by evaluating the association between self-rep...
Standard mediation techniques for fitting mediation models cannot readily be translated to nonlinear regression models because of scaling issues. Methods to assess mediation in regression models with categorical and limited response variables have expanded in recent years, and these techniques vary in their approach and versatility. The recently de...
Electric bikes (ebikes) are an emerging technology that can partially mitigate many of the challenges facing the United States, such as improving mobility for the elderly and disabled, by mitigating diabetes and obesity, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Although ebikes have become increasingly common in the U.S., they have failed to gain sign...
Background
Energy has long been recognized as foundational for well-being, and recent work, has documented a link between access to energy services and health. In this analysis, we ask how worries about the energy system—in the form of access, cost, reliability, and sustainability—influence self-rated health.
Results
Using data from 22 nations and...
Partisan rancor has markedly increased in the U.S., with significant divides between Republicans and Democrats in both the public and in government on a range of policy issues. Current partisanship extends beyond policy differences, however, in that Republicans and Democrats also hold different understandings of several empirical issues—such as cli...
Unconventional oil and gas technologies—such as hydraulic fracturing—have drastically increased the volume of oil and gas produced in the U.S., while simultaneously bringing drilling closer to residential areas. We examine quality of life impacts of unconventional oil and gas production, arguing that how people perceive its local effects is rooted...
The Clean Power Plan (CPP) is the most ambitious effort to date to de-carbonize the U.S. energy system, promote alternative energy sources and assist communities that will be deleteriously impacted by the decline of traditional fossil fuels. The CPP has proven controversial, with critiques raised by diverse stakeholders. Currently, the future of th...
Unconventional drilling technologies like hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling have markedly increased oil and gas production in the United States while also bringing production in proximity with many communities. Foundational research in rural sociology predicts the rise of local “boomtown” problems like excessive alcohol consumption as a...
Recent scholarship has thoroughly documented climate change attitudes within the majority of the English-speaking countries of the USA, the UK, Canada, and Australia. In these nations, political identity is widely recognized as a uniquely powerful predictor of climate change attitudes and, at least in the USA, several studies have found that educat...
The U.S. is undergoing a rapid energy transition, driven in large part an explosion in oil and gas production driven by unconventional drilling technologies. Some communities have embraced the boom in new oil and gas production, often resisting efforts to regulate the oil and gas industry. On the other hand, some states and municipalities have effe...
Over the past two decades, the U.S. energy sector has undergone significant transition. Coal— historically the primary power source for the U.S. economy—has declined markedly in both production and consumption. Renewables like wind and solar have become much more economically viable in recent years. However, perhaps the most dramatic change has bee...
Although climate change is an urgent problem, behavioural and policy responses have not yet been sufficient to either reduce the volume of greenhouse gas emissions or adapt to a disrupted climate system. Significant efforts have been made to raise public awareness of the dangers posed by climate change. One reason why these efforts might not be suf...
In the U.S., governance for oil and gas development has been increasingly devolved from centralized, relatively powerful governments to lower levels of government. At the same time, state governments increasingly preempt local authority, resulting in significant state-local contestation over oil and gas governance. The purpose of this analysis is t...
Over the past decade, the U.S. has had significant growth in oil and gas production due in large part to hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”); and yet, we know little about public preferences for oil and gas regulations. Political identity is a strong predictor of policy support in other arenas. The purpose of this analysis is to clarify the role of p...
In the U.S., the current regulatory regime for unconventional oil and gas development is extremely contested, with controversial exemptions buried in federal law and significant state-local conflict. Hence, the question of the appropriate scale of governance (e.g. federal, state, or local) for oil and gas development is unsettled. In this analysis,...
The U.S. energy system is currently undergoing significant transition as unconventional drilling technologies have drastically increased the volume of natural gas and oil produced domestically, the cost of renewables has declined, and coal production has plummeted. Scholars and activists have increasingly argued for a just transition policy framewo...
The USA has recently experienced an unprecedented boom in domestic, on-shore oil and gas production via unconventional drilling technologies like hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling. Community leaders and policy-makers claim that this boom holds much promise to reverse many social and economic challenges faced by rural, non-amenity counti...
Climate change presents a global problem that requires a collective, coordinated response to reduce the rate of greenhouse gases currently emitted. But, even in the face of these serious growing dangers, behavioral and policy responses have been rather muted. A growing literature has documented cross-national differences in climate change attitudes...
Oil and gas extraction, especially via unconventional means like hydraulic fracturing, is hailed as an economic boon by many commentators and political leaders. However, empirical evidence is limited. In this article, we consider the socioeconomic effects (particularly, related to poverty, employment, income, and wages) of unconventional oil and ga...
Background
Energy consumption is necessary for human well-being, yet the growth of energy consumption also contributes to climate change and a range of negative externalities. Thus, a key sustainability challenge is to efficiently use energy consumption to promote human well-being. This manuscript contributes to the growing literature on the ecolog...
New technologies like hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling have ushered in a boom of domestic oil and gas production in the United States. Oil and gas drilling often occurs in close proximity to where people live and work, creating the potential for significant quality of life impacts. In this review, we integrate across diverse literature...
In recent years, the U.S. has undergone a boom in domestic oil and gas production driven by unconventional drilling technologies. Political affiliation is one of the most consequential factors for a range of environmental and technological attitudes but it’s relationship to policy preferences for unconventional oil and gas development is less under...
Over the last 15 years, the USA has experienced a dramatic increase in the volume of oil and gas produced domestically, primarily due to unconventional technologies like hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling. However, this boom has met with much controversy as it may threaten environmental quality and human health and bring unwanted changes...
The degree to which risk perceptions are socially constructed versus the result of actual exposure to risk is highly contested; how risk exposure and risk perception influence policy attitudes is also poorly understood. We examine how personal exposure to risk factors impacts risk perceptions and policy support related to air pollution and climate...
Correctional facilities are some of the most energy intensive buildings and therefore offer a great opportunity for savings from high performance design. We ask the question, can integrative design positively affect building energy consumption, function, safety, and occupant well-being in a corrections building? From 2011–2015, we utilized mixed me...
Background:
Sustainable school buildings hold much promise to reducing operating costs, improve occupant well-being and, ultimately, teacher and student performance. However, there is a scarcity of evidence on the effects of sustainable school buildings on health and performance indicators. We sought to create a framework for a multidisciplinary r...
Democratization might be instrumental in addressing climate change on a global scale but the effect of democracy on carbon dioxide emissions is unclear. Treadmill of production (TOP) theory implies that democracy may increase emissions as publics pressure governments for increased economic growth. On the other hand, theories aligned with a rational...
Social capital is positively associated with a number of health outcomes, and it is theorized that social capital serves as a “buffer” during economic hard times, reducing the negative quality of life impacts of economic hardship. Using self-rated health as the outcome variable, we test whether social capital modifies the effect of economic hardshi...
Unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOGE) has spurred an unprecedented boom in onshore production in the US. Despite a surge in related research, a void exists regarding inquiries into policy outcomes and perceptions. To address this, support for federal regulatory exemptions for UOGE is examined using survey data collected in 2015 from two Nort...
The Tea Party political movement began in the United States in 2009, driven by opposition to the presidency of Barack Obama. Prior research has shown that Tea Party Republicans differ from mainstream Republicans on a range of attitudes, such as belief in climate change and attitudes towards immigrants. However, it is unknown if Tea Party affiliatio...
The global environmental concern literature has focused on economic development as a contextual predictor of environmental attitudes with conflicting empirical results. Some studies, informed by postmaterialist theory or the affluence hypothesis, find that national affluence increases environmental concern, whereas others find the opposite. In this...
Unconventional oil and gas technology such as hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") has created a boom in production in the United States. In this paper we add to the growing literature on public perceptions of risk and benefits related to fracking using data from Colorado. We find that trust in the oil and gas industry is powerful predictor of a range...
Introduction:
Self-rated health is demonstrated to vary substantially by both personal socio-economic status and national economic conditions. However, studies investigating the combined influence of individual and country level economic indicators across several countries in the context of recent global recession are limited. This paper furthers...
Payne’s Inspiring Sustainable Behavior: 19 ways to ask for change is a short, tightly written book that focuses on how to get individuals to take more ecologically conscious actions. The book is framed around how to properly “ask” for sustainability using 19 different question formats. Chapter titles include “Ask using the write words” and “Ask for...
The purpose of this paper is to explain the timing and location of the diffusion of heavy metal music. We use data from an Internet archive to measure the population-adjusted rate of metal band foundings in 150 countries for the 1991-2008 period. We hypothesize that growth in "digital capacity" (Internet and personal computer use) catalyzed the dif...
Citations
... Also, Al-Saidi and Hussein (2021) provided a holistic review of the COVID-19s implications on the FEW nexus. Mayer and Ryder (2021) studied COVID-19s effect on FEW security in Colorado, The United States. Karan and Asgari (2021) that a labour shortage during the pandemic impacted FEW resilience. ...
... Without getting drawn into the resource curse dialectic of broader economic consequences of energy exports and instead staying focused on issues of the energy system and export revenues, quite a number of papers reviewed address specific country or regional examples of the interaction between domestic energy security and energy resource exports for net energy exporters [19][20][21][22][23]. As observed by Novikau [20] "Conceptualization and operationalization of energy security for energy-exporting countries are relatively complex because these countries always both produce and consume energy resources." ...
... The communities participate in scaling the solution to the community or individual household units and work together to ensure that the technology can be maintained sustainably for years to come. Due to the high energy density of solar irradiation in the region (35,37), PVs are a sensible renewable energy alternative, and the in-stream generators are a good complement as the Amazon has a very dense riverine water system with many streams having adequate speed to produce hydrokinetic power (38,39). ...
![[object Object]](https://i1.rgstatic.net/ii/profile.image/899972874657792-1591581662803_Q64/Yadu-Pokhrel.jpg)
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... Besides, there are numerous other socio-environmental damaging consequences of those large infrastructure projects in the region. Examples are losses in social capital and decreasing self-rated health [39]; increasing injustices to the local populations for not being properly compensated by their losses [40]; questionable processes of consultation of the host population, lacking effective participation [41]; displacement of thousands of people, tending to impact marginalized populations more intensely [29,42]; and environmental damage to river ecosystems and to fish biodiversity [43,44]. ...
![[object Object]](https://i1.rgstatic.net/ii/profile.image/557153204936704-1509847083746_Q64/Maria-Claudia-Lopez.jpg)
... Riacho Azul mainly relies on agricultural production. Residents of Vila Jirau, Abunã, and Nova Mutum, the other resettled community, have also been engaged in a diverse range of temporary jobs and activities such as agriculture (e.g., farm, cattle ranching), gold mining, logging, or work as civil servants (Mayer et al., 2022). Downstream communities' occupations dates to ~1750 and none of them have been resettled. ...
![[object Object]](https://i1.rgstatic.net/ii/profile.image/11431281111084071-1672867686101_Q64/Maria-Garcia-678.jpg)
![[object Object]](https://i1.rgstatic.net/ii/profile.image/1165496103780352-1654887333253_Q64/Laura-Castro-Diaz.jpg)
... Besides, there are numerous other socio-environmental damaging consequences of those large infrastructure projects in the region. Examples are losses in social capital and decreasing self-rated health [39]; increasing injustices to the local populations for not being properly compensated by their losses [40]; questionable processes of consultation of the host population, lacking effective participation [41]; displacement of thousands of people, tending to impact marginalized populations more intensely [29,42]; and environmental damage to river ecosystems and to fish biodiversity [43,44]. ...
... Despite their centrality in energy provision chains during the 19 th and 20 th centuries, carbon-intensive regions are now considered peripheries -synonymous with landscape degradation, air pollution, and health and social deprivation. The phasing out of coal and the decline of related industries have resulted in stagnating local economies, declining populations, an overall sense of loss of identity and prospects, and the rise of populism rhetoric with nostalgia for the 'good old days' (Kojola, 2019;Mayer, 2022). On the other hand, the energy transition could be perceived as an opportunity for developing new lines of economy, rebranding identities, and for increasing the competitiveness of structurally depressed regions (Alves Dias et al., 2018;Stognief et al., 2019). ...
... Besides, there are numerous other socio-environmental damaging consequences of those large infrastructure projects in the region. Examples are losses in social capital and decreasing self-rated health [39]; increasing injustices to the local populations for not being properly compensated by their losses [40]; questionable processes of consultation of the host population, lacking effective participation [41]; displacement of thousands of people, tending to impact marginalized populations more intensely [29,42]; and environmental damage to river ecosystems and to fish biodiversity [43,44]. ...
... Moreover, online panels such as Qualtrics have been found to provide data that approximates the results produced by more conventional modes of survey data collection (Kees et al., 2017, Porter et al., 2019. Such online panels can also help support the recruitment of hard-toreach populations (Mayer, 2021), such as those focused on in our inclusion criteria. All of these affordances led us to use Qualtrics for recruitment. ...
... Populists often challenge environmentalists, environmental scientists, and climate change advocates, labeling them as elites or outsiders (3). Populists secure political legitimacy by tying extractive strategies of capital accumulation to job creation, economic development (4), and national prosperity (5). ...
Reference: Contemporary Populism and the Environment
