Exploring the Intersection of Environmental Events and Domestic Political Violence in the United States

Arie Perliger and Mengyan Liu

Terrorism and Political Violence, 2022, vol. 34, issue 5, 1024-1040

Abstract: Increasing levels of extreme weather patterns and environmental deterioration pose pertinent threats to the availability of essential resources, such as food and water. Past research has found a positive association between climate change and the likelihood of internal conflicts, especially in developing countries. We argue that intensifying climate events can lead to an increase in the spread and intensity of both left and right-wing ideologically motivated violence in developed countries as well, specifically the United States. We also focus on how regional environmental characteristics might be correlated to the geographical distribution of domestic political violence. Our findings suggest that while both far-right and environmental violence are more prevalent during warmer seasons and extreme warming weather events, such as heat waves, political and demographic factors also need to be considered. We also found a strong linkage between man-made ecological damage, as opposed to natural disasters, and the prevalence of eco-violence incidents, especially in states that have a progressive-liberal political culture and high levels of ecological exploitation. We conclude with a brief discussion of findings and suggestions for future research.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09546553.2022.2069933 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:ftpvxx:v:34:y:2022:i:5:p:1024-1040

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/ftpv20

DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2022.2069933

Access Statistics for this article

Terrorism and Political Violence is currently edited by James Forest

More articles in Terrorism and Political Violence from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().