Changing climate, changing minds? The effects of natural disasters on public perceptions of climate change.

Climate change Natural disasters Public beliefs

Journal

Climatic change
ISSN: 0165-0009
Titre abrégé: Clim Change
Pays: Netherlands
ID NLM: 101087507

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
2021
Historique:
received: 24 03 2021
accepted: 02 10 2021
entrez: 1 11 2021
pubmed: 2 11 2021
medline: 2 11 2021
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

The frequency and intensity of natural disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires, and floods are predicted to change as greenhouse gas concentrations increase. These disasters may represent sources of information for individuals as they update their beliefs related to climate change. Using a dataset that includes climate beliefs of respondents, we examine the effect of natural disasters on climate change beliefs and find that hurricanes significantly increase the probability that survey respondents from a given county believe that climate change is occurring and that it is human caused. We find that past experience with certain types of natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes) impacts beliefs regarding whether climate change is occurring and if it is human caused. The research contributes to the literature evaluating climate change attitudes by using spatially disaggregate information on climate change beliefs and exposure to a set of natural disasters over time. Characterizing beliefs and attitudes toward climate change and related policies is important since these beliefs are a determinant of individual adaptation and support for policies related to reducing carbon emissions.

Identifiants

pubmed: 34720263
doi: 10.1007/s10584-021-03242-6
pii: 3242
pmc: PMC8542193
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Pagination

25

Informations de copyright

© This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply 2021.

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Auteurs

Matthew R Sloggy (MR)

USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Service, Riverside, CA USA.

Jordan F Suter (JF)

Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO USA.

Mani Rouhi Rad (MR)

Department of Agricultural Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC USA.

Dale T Manning (DT)

Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO USA.

Chris Goemans (C)

Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO USA.

Classifications MeSH