Constructing a new tool for assessing environmental worldviews of individuals and organizations – case environmental worldview analysis of seven political parties in Finland

Figures & data

Figure 1. Environmental awareness (EA) leading to pro-environmental behaviour (PEB), called the EAPEB model (Harju-Autti and Kokkinen, 2014, developed from Partanen-Hertell et al. 1999).

Figure 2. An example from the survey – question 9 representing an institutionalist worldview.

Table 1. Parliamentary election 2015 results and party agendas (Finnish Election Study Portal 2014).

Party name	Abbreviation	Seats in Parliament (200 in total)	Agenda
National Coalition Party	Kok	37	A right-leaning party, conservative values, pro-market economy
Christian Democrats	KD	5	A right-leaning party, Christian religion, conservative values
Centre Party	Kesk	49	Protects the interests of rural regions
Green League	Vihr	15	An environmentalist party, liberal values
Finns Party	PS	38	A new nationalistic, EU-critical protest party
Social Democratic Party	SDP	34	A left-leaning party protecting the interests of the work force
Left Alliance	Vas	12	Left-wing view, EU-critical, defender of high taxes

Table 2. A correlation matrix of all the EWG data (n = 1637). The questions for determining EWGs are numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, and 11 of the survey (Appendix 1).

Question	2	3	4	5	8	9	10	11
	Poverty and weak economic growth	Weak international institutions and inadequate global political cooperation	Human instinct to overfill ecological space	Large-scale industrialism (some say global capitalism)	Promote economic growth_ improve poverty_ enhance efficiency and promote green technologies	Promote strong global institutions and rules that manage the global environment	Create a new global economy within limits to sustainable growth	Restore local community autonomy and empower the people whose voices have been marginalised
Poverty and weak economic growth	1.000	.211	−.001	−.024	.336	.102	−.063	−.005
Weak international institutions and inadequate global political cooperation	.211	1.000	.100	.261	.135	.456	.274	.153
Human instinct to overfill ecological space	−.001	.100	1.000	.167	.004	.057	.256	.087
Large-scale industrialism (some say global capitalism)	−.024	.261	.167	1.000	−.216	.196	.358	.511
Promote economic growth_ improve poverty_ enhance efficiency and promote green technologies	.336	.135	.004	−.216	1.000	.227	−.055	−.147
Promote strong global institutions and rules that manage the global environment	.102	.456	.057	.196	.227	1.000	.343	.145
Create a new global economy within limits to sustainable growth	−.063	.274	.256	.358	−.055	.343	1.000	.295
Restore local community autonomy and empower the people whose voices have been marginalised	−.005	.153	.087	.511	−.147	.145	.295	1.000

Table 3. Principal component analysis of all the EWG data (n = 1637).

Total variance explained
Component	Initial eigenvalues			Extraction sums of squared loadings
	Total	% of Variance	Cumulative %	Total	% of Variance
1	2281	28,513	28,513	2281	28,513
2	1635	20,431	48,945	1635	20,431
3	989	12,357	61,302
4	915	11,438	72,740
5	683	8542	81,281
6	575	7185	88,466
7	470	5872	94,337
8	453	5663	100,000

Table 4. A correlation matrix of the four EWVs.

		Pearson correlation coefficients, n = 1637
		Prob > [r] under H0:Rho = 0
	Market liberal	Institutionalist	Bioenvironmentalist	Social green
Market liberal	1.00000	0.23925	−0.04223	−0.12848
Market liberal		<.0001	0.0876	<.0001
Institutionalist	0.23925	1.00000	0.27518	0.24870
Institutionalist	<.0001		<.0001	<.0001
Bioenvironmentalist	−0.04223	0.27518	1.00000	0.31309
Bioenvironmentalist	0.0876	<.0001		<.0001
Social green	−0.12848	0.24870	0.31309	1.00000
Social green	<.0001	<.0001	<.0001

Figure 3. Histograms of the x and y axis of the EWG of all respondents (n = 1637).

Figure 4. The QQ plots and box plots of the x and y axis of EWG of all respondents (n = 1637).

Table 5. Averages and standard deviations of the politicians’ results (n = 360).

Question	Crisis					Globalization
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	x-axis	y-axis
Average	7.21	5.43	6.72	6.63	7.61	4.70	6.24	6.02	6.84	7.47	6.35	−0.38	2.64
Standard deviation	2.16	2.36	1.98	2.20	2.02	2.06	2.05	2.17	2.08	2.06	2.48	4.55	5.02

Table 6. Averages, standard deviations and ellipse parameters for the political parties.

Party (n)		Average	Standard deviation	Ellipse min (=Av. − 1.5 × SD)	Ellipse max (=Av. + 1.5 × SD)	Ellipse area
Kok (40)	X	1.5	4.4	−5.2	8.1	116.4
Kok	Y	1.4	3.7	−4.1	7.0
SDP (48)	X	−0.9	4.2	−7.3	5.4	142.8
SDP	Y	2.2	4.8	−4.9	9.3
PS (39)	X	−2.1	5.6	−10.4	6.2	242.8
PS	Y	0.9	6.2	−8.4	10.2
Kesk (41)	X	−0.6	5.0	−8.1	6.8	151.5
Kesk	Y	0.8	4.3	−5.6	7.2
Vas (63)	X	−1.1	4.1	−7.3	5.1	147.3
Vas	Y	2.8	5.0	−4.6	10.3
Vihr (99)	X	0.3	4.4	−6.3	6.9	154.1
Vihr	Y	4.9	5.0	−2.5	12.4
KD (30)	X	0.1	3.6	−5.3	5.4	100.8
KD	Y	1.6	4.0	−4.4	7.6

Figure 5. EWGs of the left-wing parties: Social Democratic Party and Left Alliance.

Figure 6. EWGs of the right-wing parties: National Coalition Party and Christian Democrats.

Figure 7. EWGs of the parties other than the left-wing and right-wing parties: Green League, Centre Party and Finns Party.

Figure 8. Party politicians’ average positions in the y axis of the EWG (a) compared to the party voters’ (2011) average agreement (%) with a statement indicating bioenvironmental worldview (b); parliamentary election candidates’ (2015) average agreement (%) with a statement indicating bioenvironmental worldview (c).

Figure 9. Party politicians’ average positions on the EWG x axis, i.e. institutionalist vs. social green scale (a), compared to the average of party voters’ answers on the matter (b and c).

Figure 10. Answers to the question ‘Is there a global environmental crisis now?’, on a scale from 0 (no crisis at all) to 100 (definitely a crisis) by the political party.

Figure 11. Views on globalisation by the political partyV.

Table

1.	Is there a global environmental crisis now?
What are the main causes of global environmental problems?
2.	Poverty and weak economic growth is the main cause of global environmental problems. The poor are often without choices, and to survive (eat, build homes, earn a living) they must exploit the natural resources around them. The only way out of this is to alleviate poverty, for which economic growth is essential. However, global markets are not open and integrated enough (a market liberal view)
3.	Weak international institutions and inadequate global political cooperation are the main causes of global environmental problems. These weaknesses lead to environmental failures, underdevelopment, and perverse effects of state sovereignty (an institutionalist view)
4.	Human instinct to overfill ecological space is the main cause of global environmental problems. This causes overpopulation, excessive economic growth and overconsumption (a bioenvironmentalist view)
5.	Large-scale industrialism (some say global capitalism) is the main cause of global environmental problems. This feeds exploitation (of labour, women, indigenous peoples, the poor, and the environment) and leads to very unequal patterns of consumption (a social green view)
What is the role of globalisation?
6.	Globalisation improves economic growth and has more positive than negative effects on the environment. Though environmental problems occur, in the long run global economic progress will improve the environment
7.	Globalisation accelerates ecological injustice and the exploitation of the environment and poor people. Moreover, globalisation reduces the autonomy of local communities
What is the best way forward?
8.	We must promote economic growth, reduce poverty, enhance efficiency and promote green technologies. We must also correct market failures and eliminate poor governmental policies (i.e. market distortions such as subsidies, and unclear property rights), and we must develop new, more environmentally friendly technologies for globally integrated markets and promote voluntary corporate greening (a market liberal view)
9.	We must promote strong global institutions and rules for managing the global environment. We must enhance global political cooperation, institutions and international environmental agreements. We must distribute technology and funds more efficiently to developing countries, and we must build state capacity and apply the precautionary principle to prevent environmental problems (an institutionalist view)
10.	We must create a new global economy within the limits of sustainable growth. We must focus on the two biggest problems of humanity: unsustainable human consumption patterns and population growth. We must restructure fundamentally our current global economic structure, by internalising the value of ecosystems into policies. We must agree to some sort of collective agreements (possibly by some advocate world government) to control greed and exploitation (a bioenvironmentalist view)
11.	We must restore the autonomy of local communities and empower the people whose voices have been marginalised. We must promote local communities and ecological justice. We must stop corporate exploitation of the developing world (especially of labour and natural resources). We must enhance knowledge systems for local and indigenous peoples, reject industrialism and reverse globalisation (a social green view)

Table

			Statistic	Std. error
x	Mean		–.5579	.11119
	95% Confidence interval for mean	Lower bound	–.7759
		Upper bound	–.3398
	5% Trimmed mean		–.5155
	Median		–.3850
	Variance		20.226
	Std. deviation		4.49731
	Minimum		−19.73
	Maximum		16.58
	Range		36.31
	Interquartile range		4.96
	Skewness		–.166	.061
	Kurtosis		1332	.121
y	Mean		3.4329	.12878
	95% Confidence interval for mean	Lower bound	3.1803
		Upper bound	3.6855
	5% Trimmed mean		3.3999
	Median		3.0390
	Variance		27.132
	Std. deviation		5.20884
	Minimum		−14.88
	Maximum		20.00
	Range		34.88
	Interquartile range		6.77
	Skewness		.134	.061
	Kurtosis		.106	.121

Table

Env All:	n	x	y	Env. Cri-sis?	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Globalization Plus	Globalization Minus	Q8	Q9	Q10	Q11	Ellipse x min	Ellipse x max	Ellipse x min	Ellipse x max
Ely-Env	61	−1.70	5.35	7.09	4.52	6.31	7.32	7.80	4.13	7.04	5.33	6.56	7.87	6.76	−0.32	−3.09	−0.85	11.54
SYKE	153	−0.92	4.13	7.96	4.90	6.98	6.87	8.11	4.11	6.47	5.46	7.20	7.62	7.00	0.53	−2.38	−1.91	10.17
MH	297	−0.97	4.02	7.54	5.36	6.85	7.42	7.78	4.60	6.39	5.58	6.81	7.53	6.85	−2.09	0.15	−1.92	9.97
YM	99	0.75	3.96	8.02	5.27	7.31	7.16	7.58	4.34	6.34	6.06	7.45	8.13	6.44	1.88	−0.38	−2.30	10.22
	610	−0.75	4.17	7.68	5.15	6.90	7.23	7.83	4.39	6.47	5.60	6.99	7.69	6.81	−0.44	−1.06	1.61	6.73
Others all:
Ely-Others	100	−0.01	2.12	6.73	5.63	6.68	6.91	7.63	5.50	5.89	6.55	6.71	7.39	5.78	−0.24	0.21	−3.49	7.73
SITRA	44	0.15	3.74	7.64	4.47	6.52	6.86	7.06	5.66	5.72	6.58	6.63	7.93	5.94	−3.26	3.56	3.42	4.06
TEKES	32	2.27	0.22	7.20	5.30	6.35	6.29	5.79	6.39	5.05	7.94	6.22	7.17	4.50	0.41	4.14	−1.82	2.25
TEM	104	1.25	1.35	7.65	5.51	6.63	6.41	6.85	5.55	5.90	6.90	6.78	7.36	5.25	0.13	2.36	−1.45	4.16
Others all	280	0.74	1.87	7.27	5.37	6.60	6.65	7.04	5.65	5.77	6.84	6.67	7.44	5.46	0.74	0.74	1.87	1.87
Control groups All:
Facebook	107	−1.54	3.07	8.85	4.47	6.70	6.43	7.94	3.96	6.96	6.77	7.62	7.87	7.92	1.63	−4.70	−3.26	9.40
CERTU	45	−2.11	4.22	8.78	4.17	6.83	6.05	8.27	2.81	7.92	5.42	7.17	7.76	7.84	−3.34	−0.89	−4.53	12.96
Life	26	0.82	5.83	7.79	4.87	7.13	7.40	7.73	4.24	6.79	5.07	7.05	8.37	5.64	4.53	−2.90	−3.02	14.68
NGO	62	−2.48	5.90	8.57	4.04	6.48	6.53	8.33	3.87	6.75	4.95	6.83	8.36	7.45	−1.75	−3.20	0.42	11.38
Students	103	−0.48	3.65	7.56	4.86	6.22	7.23	7.17	4.97	5.84	6.23	6.62	7.51	6.16	2.61	−3.57	−2.84	10.15
Env.Experts	39	−2.06	4.33	8.13	4.35	6.36	6.64	7.62	3.09	6.41	5.84	6.62	7.88	7.42	−0.01	−4.11	−1.88	10.54
	382	−1.36	4.14	8.31	4.48	6.54	6.71	7.79	4.01	6.67	5.96	7.03	7.87	7.15	−1.36	−1.36	4.14	4.14
All	1272	−0.61	3.66	7.78	5.00	6.73	6.94	7.64	4.55	6.37	5.98	6.93	7.69	6.62	−0.61	−0.61	3.66	3.66

Harju-Autti P, Kokkinen E. 2014. A novel Environmental Awareness Index, measured cross-nationally for 57 countries. Univ J Environ Res Technol. 3:544–554.

 Google Scholar

Partanen-Hertell M, Harju-Autti P, Kreft-Burman K, Pemberton D. 1999. Raising environmental awareness in the Baltic Sea area. Finnish Environment Institute, FE327, ISBN 952-11-1734-6 (pdf), Available as a pdf from: https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/36461/browse?value=Partanen-Hertell%2C+Marjut&type=author

 Google Scholar

Finnish Election Study Portal. 2014. Available from: http://www.vaalitutkimus.fi/en/

 Google Scholar