Social and Environmental Influences on Endangered Species: A Cross-National Study

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Abstract
Although there have been general social, economic, and environmental hypotheses developed to explain the distribution of endangered species across the globe, there is a paucity of social science literature designed to specify these hypotheses in more detail or test them with comparative, national-level data. This study draws on several models from environmental sociology to specify conceptually the relationship between social and economic factors and rates of endangered mammals and birds. Specifically, I developed hypotheses based on neo-Malthusian, ecological modernization, treadmill of production, and world-systems theory and analyzed data on endangered species, population, land use, economic size and growth, energy use, and industrial pollutants from one hundred twenty nations. The results support ecological modernization's position that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between GDP per capita and endangerment rates, but they also indicate that GDP growth is associated with a monotonic increase in these rates, thus supporting a treadmill of production argument. Yet these relationships vary by world-systems position. Endangerment rates in peripheral nations are affected more by GDP growth, whereas rates in semiperipheral nations are affected more by deforestation, GDP per capita, and growth in energy use per capita.