Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T17:41:58.744Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

RESEARCH ARTICLE: Attitude and Risk Perceptions about Climate Change in Farming Communities in Southern Ethiopia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Nigatu Regassa  and
Barbara J. Stoecker
Nigatu Regassa*
Affiliation:
Department of Rural Development and Family Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa, SNNPR, Ethiopia
Barbara J. Stoecker
Affiliation:
Department of Nutritional Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.
*
Address correspondence to: Nigatu Regassa, Department of Rural Development and Family Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa, SNNPR, Ethiopia; (phone) 251-046-2207562; (fax) 251-046-205421; (e-mail) [email protected].
Get access

Abstract

Climate change knowledge and risk perceptions were examined in farming communities in Southern Ethiopia. Based on multistage probability sampling, data were collected from 2,188 respondents. Most respondents (80%) were concerned about risk of climate change. Variables that predicted knowledge and risk perception for both men and women were frequency of listening to the radio, household size, agroclimatic zone, and educational status. Additionally, age, household wealth, and social institution membership were predictive for women, and frequency of newspaper reading was predictive for men. The high levels of risk perception suggest receptiveness to context-appropriate strategies to reduce potential long-term vulnerability.

Environmental Practice 16: 29–36 (2014)

Type
Features
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 29 - 36
Copyright
© National Association of Environmental Professionals 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amsalu, A., and Gebremichael, D.. 2010. An Overview of Climate Change Impacts and Responses in Ethiopia. Ethiopian Environment Review, no. 1:215–232.Google Scholar
Anderson, B.A., Romani, J.H., Phillips, H., Wentzel, M., and Tlabela, K.. 2007. Exploring Environmental Perceptions, Behaviors and Awareness: Water and Water Pollution in South Africa. Population and Environment 28(3):133–161.Google Scholar
Arcury, T.A. 2010. Environmental Attitude and Environmental Knowledge. Human Organization 49(4):300–304.Google Scholar
Barber, J.S., Biddlecom, A.E., and Axinn, W.G.. 2003. Neighborhood Social Change and Perceptions of Environmental Degradation. Population and Environment 25(2):77–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barkan, S.E. 2004. Explaining Public Support for the Environmental Movement: A Civic Voluntarism Model. Social Science Quarterly 85(4):913–937.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bord, R.J., O’Connor, R.E., and Fischer, A.. 2000. In What Sense Does the Public Need to Understand Global Climate Change? Public Understanding of Science 9(3):205–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brody, S.D., Zahran, S., Vedlitz, A., and Grover, H.. 2008. Examining the Relationship between Physical Vulnerability and Public Perceptions of Global Climate Change in the United States. Environment and Behavior 40(1):72–95.Google Scholar
Brown, C.K. 2008. Public Opinion on Climate Change: The Roles of Risk Perception and Scientific Knowledge in Preventing Passivity (unpublished MPP thesis). Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 31 pp. Available at https://m.repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/555760.Google Scholar
Bryan, E., Ringler, C., Okoba, B., Roncoli, C., Silvestri, S., and Herrero, M. 2010, February. Coping with Climate Variability and Adapting to Climate Change in Kenya: Household and Community Strategies and Determinants. Report to the World Bank. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, 3 pp. Available at http://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/3857/Kenya_Project_Note_3.pdf?sequence=1.Google Scholar
Deressa, T.T., Rashid, M.H., Claudia, R., Tekie, A., and Mahmud, Y. 2008, September. Analysis of the Determinants of Farmers’ Choice of Adaptation Methods and Perceptions of Climate Change in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Discussion Paper 00798. IFPRI, Washington, DC, 33 pp. Available at http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/ifpridp00798.pdf.Google Scholar
Diekmann, A., and Preisendorfer, P. 1998. Environmental Behavior: Discrepancies between Aspirations and Reality. Rationality and Society 10(1):79–102. doi:10.1177/104346398010001003.Google Scholar
Dunlap, R.E., Van Liere, K.D., Mertig, A.G., and Jones, R.E. 2000. Measuring Endorsement of the New Ecological Paradigm: A Revised NEP Scale. Journal of Social Issues 56(3):425–442.Google Scholar
Dunlap, R.E., Xiao, C., and McCright, A.M. 2001. Politics and Environment in America: Partisan and Ideological Cleavages in Public Support for Environmentalism. Environmental Politics 10(4):23–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ethiopian Central Statistical Authority (CSA). 2008, December. Summary and Statistical Report of the 2007 Population and Housing Census: Population Size by Age and Sex. CSA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 113 pp. Available at http://ecastats.uneca.org/aicmd/Portals/0/Cen2007_firstdraft.pdf.Google Scholar
Ethiopian Central Statistical Authority (CSA) and ORC Macro. 2006, September. Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey, 2005. CSA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and ORC Macro, Calverton, MD, 410 pp. Available at http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/FR179/FR179[23June2011].pdf.Google Scholar
Ethiopian Economic Association/Economic Policy Research Institute. 2010, December. The Social Dimensions of Adaptation to Climate Change in Ethiopia. Discussion Paper 14. World Bank, Washington, DC, 79 pp. Available at http://climatechange.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/documents/Ethiopia_EACC-Social-12-7-10.pdf.Google Scholar
Hidalgo, M., and Pisano, I. 2010. Determinants of Risk Perception and Willingness to Tackle Climate Change: A Pilot Study. Environmental Psychology 1(1):105–112.Google Scholar
Hong, D.Y., and Xiao, C.Y. 2010. Gender Differences in Environmental Behavior in China. Population and Environment 32(1):88–104. doi:10.1007/s11111-010-0115-z.Google Scholar
Hunter, L.M., Johnson, A., and Hatch, A. 2004. Cross-national Gender Variation in Environmental Behaviors. Social Science Quarterly 85(3):677–694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, L.M., Strife, S., and Twine, W. 2010. Environmental Perceptions of Rural South African Residents: The Complex Nature of Environmental Concern. Society Natural Resources 23(6):525–541.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, R.E., and Dunlap, R.E. 1992. The Social Bases of Environmental Concern: Have They Changed over Time? Rural Sociology 57(1):28–47.Google Scholar
Kellstedt, P.M., Zahran, S., and Vedlitz, A. 2008. Personal Efficacy, the Information Environment, and Attitudes toward Global Warming and Climate Change in the United States. Risk Analysis 28(1):113–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kemausuor, F., Dwamena, E., Bart-Plange, A., and Kyei-Baffour, N. 2011. Farmers’ Perception of Climate Change in the Ejura-Sekyedumase District of Ghana. ARPN Journal of Agricultural and Biological Science 6(10):26–37. Available at http://www.arpnjournals.com/jabs/research_papers/rp_2011/jabs_1011_321.pdf.Google Scholar
Leiserowitz, A. 2006. Climate Change Risk Perception and Policy Preferences: The Role of Affect, Imagery, and Values. Climate Change 77(1–2):45–72. doi:10.1007/s10584-006-9059-9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leiserowitz, A. 2007, November. International Public Opinion, Perception, and Understanding of Global Climate Change. UN Human Development Report 2007/2008. UN Development Program, New York, 40 pp. Available at http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.168.3559.Google Scholar
O’Connor, R.E., Bord, R.J., Yarnal, B., and Wiefek, N. 2002. Who Wants to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Social Science Quarterly 83(1):1–17.Google Scholar
Population Action International (PAI). 2009, October. Climate Change Adaptation: Ethiopia Country Study Executive Summary. PAI, Washington, DC, 2 pp. Available at http://www.populationaction.org/ethiopiaccs.Google Scholar
Rees, L.M. 2009, May. What Is the Impact of Livelihood Strategies on Farmers’ Climate Risk Perceptions in the Bolivian Highlands? (unpublished MSc thesis). University of Missouri–Columbia, 153 pp. Available at https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/6548.Google Scholar
Somorin, A.O. 2010. Climate Impacts, Forest-Dependent Rural Livelihoods and Adaptation Strategies in Africa: A Review. African Journal of Environmental Science and Technology 4(13):903–912, Available at http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajest/article/view/71407.Google Scholar
Stamm, K.R., Clark, F., and Eblacas, P.R. 2000. Mass Communication and Public Understanding of Environmental Problems: The Case of Global Warming. Public Understanding of Science 9(3):219–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, P.C., and Dietz, T. 1994. The Value Basis of Environmental Concern. Journal of Social Issues 50(3):65–84.Google Scholar
Tarrant, M.A., and Cordell, H.K. 1997. The Effect of Respondent Characteristics on General Environmental Attitude-Behavior Correspondence. Environment and Behavior 29(5):618–637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vedwan, N. 2006. Culture, Climate and the Environment: Local Knowledge and Perception of Climate Change among Apple Growers in Northwestern India. Journal of Ecological Anthropology 10(4):4–18.Google Scholar