Farmers and Climate Change: A Cross-National Comparison of Beliefs and Risk Perceptions in High-Income Countries

Thumbnail Image
Date
2015-08-01
Authors
Arbuckle, J. Gordon
Barnes, Andrew
Haden, V. R.
Niles, Meredith
Tyndall, John
Major Professor
Advisor
Committee Member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Authors
Person
Person
Tyndall, John
Professor
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Organizational Unit
Natural Resource Ecology and Management
The Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management is dedicated to the understanding, effective management, and sustainable use of our renewable natural resources through the land-grant missions of teaching, research, and extension.
Organizational Unit
Journal Issue
Is Version Of
Versions
Series
Department
Natural Resource Ecology and ManagementSociology
Abstract

Climate change has serious implications for the agricultural industry—both in terms of the need to adapt to a changing climate and to modify practices to mitigate for the impacts of climate change. In high-income countries where farming tends to be very intensive and large scale, it is important to understand farmers’ beliefs and concerns about climate change in order to develop appropriate policies and communication strategies. Looking across six study sites—Scotland, Midwestern United States, California, Australia, and two locations in New Zealand—this paper finds that over half of farmers in each location believe that climate change is occurring. However, there is a wide range of beliefs regarding the anthropogenic nature of climate change; only in Australia do a majority of farmers believe that climate change is anthropogenic. In all locations, a majority of farmers believe that climate change is not a threat to local agriculture. The different policy contexts and existing impacts from climate change are discussed as possible reasons for the variation in beliefs. This study compared varying surveys from the different locations and concludes that survey research on farmers and climate change in diverse locations should strive to include common questions to facilitate comparisons.

Comments

This is a manuscript of an article published as Prokopy, Linda S., J. G. Arbuckle, Andrew P. Barnes, V. R. Haden, Anthony Hogan, Meredith T. Niles, and John Tyndall. "Farmers and climate change: A cross-national comparison of beliefs and risk perceptions in high-income countries." Environmental management 56, no. 2 (2015): 492-504. doi: 10.1007/s00267-015-0504-2. Posted with permission.

Description
Keywords
Citation
DOI
Copyright
Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2015
Collections