Outcomes of global environmentalism: Longitudinal and cross-national trends in chemical fertilizer and pesticide use

Previous research identifies changing world cultural norms as the impetus for a worldwide trend promoting environmentalism. However, the extent to which countries comply with the norms promoted and codified by environmental organizations and treaties has been less rigorously tested. Suspected noncompliance is generally explained as "decoupling" between policy and outcome. Here, I address the relationship between stated environmental objectives and practices and integrate world society and world-systems perspectives on the natural environment. Using random effects regression analyses of cross-national chemical fertilizer and pesticide use, I find that integration into world culture significantly predicts overall decreased use of these environmentally harmful products. However, the effect varies by zone of the world system, which supports an integrated theory of global environmentalism.