Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Ecuador; Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, UK.
Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, UK.
Public Underst Sci. 2020 Oct;29(7):745-756. doi: 10.1177/0963662520936088. Epub 2020 Jul 6.
For decades, researchers have worried about people's understanding of climate change. Although this understanding varies by cultural context, most studies so far have taken place in industrialised countries. Few studies have explored understandings of climate change in the global South. Through standardised questionnaires and semi-structured interviews conducted in southern Ecuador, this article explores differences between urban and rural dwellers and compares these with farmers' understandings of the causes, consequences and risks. We found urban and rural dwellers hold a similar understanding to that found in other nations, but articulated in ways that reflect their particular realities. Despite reporting firsthand experience of the agricultural effects of climate change, when prompted, farmers do not link climate change to their own experience. It is thus important to go beyond judging knowledge as correct or incorrect, and instead, incorporate local realities in the climate narrative.
几十年来，研究人员一直担心人们对气候变化的理解。尽管这种理解因文化背景而异，但迄今为止，大多数研究都发生在工业化国家。很少有研究探索全球南方对气候变化的理解。本文通过在厄瓜多尔南部进行标准化问卷和半结构化访谈，探讨了城市居民和农村居民之间的差异，并将这些差异与农民对气候变化的原因、后果和风险的理解进行了比较。我们发现，城市居民和农村居民的理解与其他国家的理解相似，但表达方式反映了他们的特殊现实。尽管他们报告了气候变化对农业的直接影响，但在受到提示时，农民并不会将气候变化与自己的经历联系起来。因此，重要的是要超越判断知识的正确或错误，而是将当地现实纳入气候叙事中。
