Sloggy Matthew R, Suter Jordan F, Rad Mani Rouhi, Manning Dale T, Goemans Chris
USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Service, Riverside, CA USA.
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO USA.
Clim Change. 2021;168(3-4):25. doi: 10.1007/s10584-021-03242-6. Epub 2021 Oct 24.
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.
随着温室气体浓度的增加，飓风、野火和洪水等自然灾害的频率和强度预计将会发生变化。这些灾害可能为个人提供信息来源，帮助他们更新与气候变化相关的信念。利用一个包含受访者气候信念的数据集，我们研究了自然灾害对气候变化信念的影响，发现飓风显著增加了来自特定县的调查受访者相信气候变化正在发生且是由人类活动导致的概率。我们发现，过去经历过某些类型的自然灾害（如飓风）会影响人们对气候变化是否正在发生以及是否由人类活动导致的信念。这项研究通过使用关于气候变化信念的空间分解信息以及一段时间内遭受一系列自然灾害的情况，为评估气候变化态度的文献做出了贡献。描述对气候变化及相关政策的信念和态度很重要，因为这些信念是个人适应以及对与减少碳排放相关政策支持的一个决定因素。
