Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Elizabeth Mitchell Drive, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia.
J Environ Manage. 2013 Jan 30;115:69-77. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.11.003. Epub 2012 Dec 12.
This study examined how the terms used to describe climate change influence landholder acceptability judgements and attitudes toward climate change at the local scale. Telephone surveys were conducted with landholders from viticultural (n = 97) or cereal growing (n = 195) backgrounds in rural South Australia. A variety of descriptive and inferential statistics were used to examine the influence of human-induced climate change and winter/spring drying trend terms on adaptation responses and uncertainties surrounding climate change science. We found that the terms used to describe climate change leads to significant differences in adaptation response and levels of scepticism surrounding climate change in rural populations. For example, those respondents who accepted human induced climate change as a reality were significantly more likely to invest in technologies to sow crops earlier or increase the amount of water stored or harvested on their properties than respondents who accepted the winter/spring drying trend as a reality. The results have implications for the targeting of climate change science messages to both rural landholders and communities of practice involved in climate change adaptation planning and implementation.
本研究探讨了描述气候变化的术语如何影响地方尺度上土地所有者对气候变化的可接受性判断和态度。在南澳大利亚农村地区，对从事葡萄种植（n=97）或谷物种植（n=195）的土地所有者进行了电话调查。使用各种描述性和推论性统计数据来研究人为引起的气候变化和冬/春干旱趋势术语对适应反应以及气候变化科学不确定性的影响。我们发现，用于描述气候变化的术语导致农村人口对适应反应和对气候变化的怀疑程度存在显著差异。例如，那些接受人为引起的气候变化是现实的受访者，比那些接受冬/春干旱趋势是现实的受访者更有可能投资于提前播种作物或增加储水量或收获水量的技术。研究结果对气候变化科学信息的针对性具有启示意义，既针对农村土地所有者，也针对参与气候变化适应规划和实施的实践社区。
