State-level environmental risk perception: an analysis of 20 Comparative Risk Reports

Research was conducted to identify the states that compiled Comparative Risk Reports and the year in which the study was completed. The information relating to the type of committee that compiled the risk report and the final risk rankings was examined. State Comparative Risk Reports were collected for twenty states and the risk rankings that each state compiled were reviewed to determine which states ranked third generation environmental problems and the ranking that those problems were given. The risk reports compiled by each state were also used to determine which states ranked natural resource based problems and the ranking that those problems were given. Dependent variables were constructed for the third-generation problems global warming, ozone depletion, acid rain as well as for natural resource-based problems. Independent variables were used to indicate the contextual setting of the responses of the individual states. The independent variables that were used are as follows: Total Green Index score, Green Policy score, Green Conditions score, air pollution score, natural resource GSP, per capita income, and bachelor’s degree. Two different methods were used to analyze the data compiled for this research, difference of means testing and Pearson bivariate correlation analyses. The difference of means test was used to determine if there were patterns in the relationship between the dependent variables and independent variables that would suggest reasons why states would rank third generation environmental problems and natural resource based problems differently. One-tailed Pearson bivariate correlation analyses were conducted to determine if there were significant statistical associations between the dependent and independent variables. In analyzing the data from the risk rankings of each state, significant associations were found between concern for global warming and the Green Policy score. Significant associations were also found between the combined rankings of third generation environmental problems and the Air Pollution score taken from the Green Index and between natural resource based problems and natural resource GSP