UC Irvine

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the international community is the environmental problem. The three chapters in this dissertation investigate the global cultural and economic processes shaping ambient air pollution and the emission of various forms of greenhouse gases. The first chapter investigates the issue of ambient air pollution. This form of emission is associated with increased preventable deaths, mortality, and asthma complications. The second and third chapter investigate two types of greenhouse gas emissions. The second chapter analyzes nitrous oxide emissions, which are an extremely potent greenhouse gas emission and contribute to stratospheric ozone depletion. The third chapter analyses carbon dioxide emissions. Each chapter investigates the extent various aspects of globalization help explain cross-national and longitudinal variation in these emissions. The first chapter analyzes the effect of global cultural processes across a country’s position in the stratified world economy. The second and third chapter analyze the effect of the world economy, with a particular focus on foreign direct investment. Using fixed effects panel regression models in all three analyses, I find in the first chapter that the effect of world culture on ambient air pollution is contingent on a country’s position in the world-system. In the second and third chapter, I find that foreign capital penetration is positively associated with nitrous oxide emissions and carbon dioxide emissions, respectively. Each of these analyses engage longstanding scholarly dialogues regarding the effects of globalization on environmental change.