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Perspectives of climate change: A comparison of scientific understanding and local interpretations by different Western Siberian communities

  • Siberian Environmental Change
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Abstract

We present a study of social effects of climate change as experienced by local communities, based on field research and analysis in Western Siberia, from southern taiga to tundra. The results of field anthropological research reveal different attitudes of local residents to climate change. We compare the key trends of climate change with the perspectives of local residents, based on memories, subjective experiences, and local environmental knowledge. Our results highlight a significant divergence of the subjective assessments of residents from objective data on the dynamics of changes in certain environmental elements. We explore how the human subjective perception of natural processes, their consequences and impacts, are influenced by such factors as: type of settlement, age, gender, level of education and how collective stereotypes and judgments merge information in attitude formation. We also address the need to reconcile observed climate change impacts and perceptions to enable decision-makers to engage more constructively with the local population to develop and implement adaptation.

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Acknowledgements

The study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research in the framework of scientific Project Nos. 18-05-60264, 18-00-01654 (K), 18-00-01493, 18-00-01625. The reported study was carried out using the research equipment of the Unique Research Installation “System of experimental bases located along the latitudinal gradient” TSU with financial support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia (RF—2296.61321X0043, Agreement No. 075-15-2021-672) (http://ckp-rf.ru/usu/586718/; http://www.secnet.online/megaustanovka-ru.html). We express our gratitude to the TSU Unique Research Installation staff and to the INTERACT for fruitful cooperation. Authors also would like to thanks Terry V Callaghan for his valuable ideas and advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HSE University, 16 Souyuza Pechatnikov, St Petersburg, Russia, 190121

    Lidia Rakhmanova

  2. Tomsk State University, 36, Lenin Av., Tomsk, Russia, 634050

    Larisa Kolesnichenko, Iurii Kolesnichenko, Rostislav Vorobev, Svetlana Tyulyupo, Viktor Drozdov & Olga Shaduyko

  3. Tomsk State University, Arcadia Ivanova Street, 49, Tomsk, Russia, 634050

    Irina Kuzhevskaya

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  1. Lidia Rakhmanova
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Correspondence to Olga Shaduyko.

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Rakhmanova, L., Kolesnichenko, L., Kuzhevskaya, I. et al. Perspectives of climate change: A comparison of scientific understanding and local interpretations by different Western Siberian communities. Ambio 50, 2072–2089 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01621-y

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