CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 261Sustainable Development and Environmental PolicyEnergy, Environment, Economic GrowthEnvironmental Impact and Sustainability

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 84 of the 84 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Footprints on the Earth: The Environmental Consequences of Modernity

York, Richard, Rosa, Eugene A., Dietz, Thomas·2003·American Sociological Review
DOI 10.1177/000312240306800205
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Growing evidence demonstrating clear threats to the sustainability of the ecosystems supporting human societies has given rise to a variety of sociological theories of human-environment interactions. These environmental impact theories fall into three general perspectives: human ecology, modernization, and political economy. These theories, however, have not been empirically tested in a common analytic framework. Here, a framework that relies on ecological principles is adopted and modified. Using a revised stochastic formulation of that framework and the most comprehensive measure of environmental impact to date—the ecological footprint—the factors driving the environmental impacts of societies are assessed. The overall findings support the claims of human ecologists, partially support the claims of political economists, and contradict the claims of modernization theorists. Basic material conditions, such as population, economic production, urbanization, and geographical factors all affect the environment and explain the vast majority of cross-national variation in environmental impact. Factors derived from neo-liberal modernization theory, such as political freedom, civil liberties, and state environmentalism have no effect on impacts. Taken together, these findings suggest societies cannot be sanguine about achieving sustainability via a continuation of current trends in economic growth and institutional change.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1177/000312240306800205

Cites

84 of 84 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Show all 83 references

Research works printed but not linked: 31

  1. Beck Ulrich, 1992, Risk Society: Toward a New Modernity.
  2. Commoner Barry, 1971, The Closing Circle.
  3. Commoner Barry, 1971, Environment, 13, 2
  4. Dietz Thomas, 1994, Human Ecology Review, 1, 277
  5. Duncan Otis Dudley, 1959, The Study of Population, 678
  6. Ehrlich Paul and Holdren John. 1970. “The People Problem.” Saturday Review, July 4, pp. 42–43.
  7. Espenshade Edward B., 1993, Goode's World Atlas.
  8. House Freedom, 1997, Freedom in the World: 1996–1997.
  9. Freese Lee, 1997, Evolutionary Connections.
  10. Freese Lee, 1997, Environmental Connections.
  11. Giddens Anthony, 2000, Runaway World.
  12. Graedel Thomas, 1995, Industrial Ecology.
  13. Harris Marvin, 1971, Culture, Man, and Nature.
  14. Harrison Paul, 1993, The Third Revolution.
  15. Harrison Paul, 2000, AAAS Atlas of Population and Environment.
  16. Kick Edward, 1996, Journal of Developing Societies, 12, 68
  17. Kuznets Simon, 1955, American Economic Review, 45, 1
  18. Marx Karl, 1967, Capital: A Critique of Politcal Economy.
  19. Mol Arthur P. J., 2001, Globalization and Environmental Reform.
  20. Mol Arthur P. J., 2000, Ecological Modernization around the World: Perspectives and Critical Debates.
  21. Nordstrom Hakan, 1999, Trade and Environment.
  22. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)., 1998, Globalization and the Environment: Perspectives from OECD and Dynamic Non-Member Economies.
  23. Roberts J. Timmons, 2002, Sociological Theory and the Environment: Classical Foundations, Contemporary Insights, 167
  24. Roberts J. Timmons and Vásquez Alexis A. 2002. “State Environmentalism Revisited: Structural Predictors of Nations' Propensity to Sign Environmental Treaties or Who Signs Environmental Treaties and Why? A World-System Analysis.” Paper presented at the International Studies Association Conference, March 14, New Orleans, LA.
  25. Rosa Eugene A., York Richard, and Dietz Thomas. 2001. “Modernization and the Environment: Modeling the Impacts of Economic Development.” Paper presented at the International Sociological Association conference on “New Natures, New Cultures, New Technologies,” July 6, Cambridge, England.
  26. Samuelson Paul A., 1992, Economics.
  27. 10.1515/9780691214764 · DOI
  28. Turner B. L., 1991, The Earth as Transformed by Human Action: Global and Regional Changes in the Biosperhe over the Past 300 Years.
  29. United Nations Population Division, 1998, Annual Populations, 1950–2050 (1998 Revision) [MRDF]
  30. Wackernagel Mathis, 2000, Living Planet Report 2000.
  31. World Resources Institute (WRI), United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Development Programme, and World Bank., 1996, World Resources 1996–1997: A Guide to the Global Environment: The Urban Environment.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 261

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
York, R., Rosa, E. A., & Dietz, T.
Affiliations
  • University of Oregon (US)
  • Washington State University (US)
  • Michigan State University (US)
Corresponding author
York, Richard
ORCID
Venue
American Sociological Review
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2003-04
Volume
68
Issue
2
Pages
279-300
ISSN
  • 0003-1224 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-8271
DOI
10.1177/000312240306800205
OpenAlex
W4385886475
Cited by
258
References
83
Citations by year
2026: 24 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 6
FWCI
10.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
American Sociological Review (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Energy, Environment, Economic Growth
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
Keywords
ecological footprint, environmental impact, human-nature relationship, modernization theory, human ecology, political economy of the environment, sustainability, population, economic production, urbanization, political freedom, civil liberties, cross-national variation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review