CERE Working Papers,
CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics

Abstract: I examine how individuals update their environmental attitudes in response to climate events using the extensive Swedish forest fires in 2018. Political scientists have suggested that motivated reasoning contributes to political divergence in environmental attitudes over time. It remains empirically unclear whether the growing prominence of climate events could potentially bridge these political divides in attitudes. I document rising environmental concerns following the fires. The extent of these increases was weakly influenced by the intensity of local fires but strongly affected by individuals' prior beliefs. Left-leaning individuals exhibited stronger prior concerns and experienced a significant escalation in their degree of concerns relative to right-leaning individuals. The growing disparity in concerns suggests that climate events exacerbate political polarization in environmental attitudes rather than mitigate it. I also find that exposure to climate change news did not contribute to the political polarization of concerns, strengthening the interpretation that motivated reasoning along partisan lines shapes differential reactions to climate disasters.

Keywords: political polarization; climate extremes; forest fires; environmental attitudes; climate change concerns

JEL-codes: D72; D83; D91; Q54

Language: English

37 pages, October 28, 2023

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