Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Rancher and farmer perceptions of climate change in Nevada, USA

  • Published:
Climatic Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Farming and ranching communities in arid lands are vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. We surveyed Nevada ranchers and farmers (n = 481) during 2009–2010 to assess climate change related knowledge, assumptions, and perceptions. The large majority of this group agreed that we are in a period of climate change; however, only 29 % of them believed that human activity is playing a significant role. Female ranchers and farmers hold more scientifically accurate knowledge about climate change than do their male counterparts, regardless of Democratic or Republican affiliation. Partisan affiliation, political ideology, and gender have strong impacts on climate change knowledge and perceptions. Republican, conservative and male rural residents view climate change as a low national priority, less important to themselves, and less harmful to their communities. Female ranchers and farmers are more concerned about the negative impacts of climate change. We found that only 4 % of our subjects (n = 299) attribute local environment changes to climate change or global warming. The knowledge gained from this study will help researchers and natural resource managers understand how to best communicate about climate change with rural communities, and support policy makers in identifying potentially effective adaptation and mitigation policies and outreach programs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arcury TA, Scollay S, Johnson TP (1987) Sex differences in environmental concern and knowledge. Sex Roles 16:463–472

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes AP, Toma L (2012) A typology of dairy farmer perceptions towards climate change. Clim Chang 112:507–522

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bord RJ, Fisher A, O’Connor RE (1998) Public perceptions of global warming: United States and international perspectives. Clim Res 11:75–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borick CP, Rabe BG (2010) A reason to believe: examining the factors that determine individual views on global warming. Soc Sci Q 91(3):777–800

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brace C, Geoghegan H (2010) Human geographies of climate change: landscape, temporality, and lay knowledges. Prog Hum Geogr 35(1):1–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Brody CJ (1984) Sex differences in support for nuclear power. Soc Forces 63:209–228

    Google Scholar 

  • Brody SD, Zahran S, Vedlitz A, Grover H (2008) Examining the relationship between physical vulnerability and public perceptions of global climate change in the United States. Environ Behav 40:72–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell DJ (1999) Response to drought among farmers and herders in Southern Kajiado District, Kenya: a comparison of 1972–1976 and 1994–1995. Hum Ecol 27(3):377–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CIER (2008) Economic impacts of climate change in Nevada. The Center of Integrative Environmental, University of Maryland, 19p. Available at http://www.cier.umd.edu/climateadaptation/Nevada%20Economic%20Impacts%20of%20Climate%20Change.pdf. Accessed 26 April 2012

  • Coles AR, Scott CA (2009) Vulnerability and adaptation to climate change and variability in semi-arid rural southern Arizona, USA. Nat Res Forum 33:297–309

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coyle K (2005) Environmental literacy in America. Washington, DC: The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation. Available at http://www.neefusa.org/pdf/ELR2005.pdf

  • Davidson DJ, Freudenburg WR (1996) Gender and environmental risk concerns. Environ Behav 28:302–339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dietz T, Dan A, Shwom R (2007) Support for climate change policy: social psychological and social structural influences. Rural Sociol 72:185–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunlap RE, van Liere KD (1984) Commitment to the dominant social paradigm and concern for environmental quality. Soc Sci Q 65:1013–1028

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunlap RE, McCright AM (2008) A widening gap: Republican and Democratic views on climate change. Environment 50(5):26–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleming A, Vanclay F (2010) Farmer responses to climate change and sustainable agriculture. A review. Agron Sustain Dev 30:11–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton LC, Keim BD (2009) Regional variation in perceptions about climate change. Int J Climatol 29:2348–2352

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton LC (2010) Education, politics, and opinions about climate change: evidence for interaction effects. Clim Chang. doi:10.1007/s10584-010-9957-8

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayes BC (2001) Gender, scientific knowledge, and attitudes toward the environment. Polit Res Q 54:657–671

    Google Scholar 

  • Hulme M (2009) Why we disagree about climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Huxman TE, Wilcox BP, Breshears DD, Scott RL, Snyder KA, Small EE, Hultine K, Pockman WT, Jackson RB (2005) Ecohydrological implications of woody plant encroachment. Ecology 86:308–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007) Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Summary for policymakers from http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_spm.pdf

  • Kellstedt PM, Zahran S, Vedlitz A (2008) Personal efficacy, the information environment, and attitudes toward global warming and climate change in the United States. Risk Anal 28:113–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leiserowitz A (2005) American risk perceptions: is climate change dangerous? Risk Anal 25:1433–1442

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leiserowitz A (2006) Climate change risk perception and policy preferences: the role of affect, imagery, and values. Clim Chang 77:45–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leiserowitz A, Maibach E, Roser-Renouf C (2009) Climate change in the American mind: Americans’ climate change beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences, and actions. Yale Project on Climate Change, New Haven, CT

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu Z, Smith WJ Jr (2013) Geography and climate change. In: Black BC, Hassenzahl DM, Stephens JC, Weisel G, Gift N (eds) Climate change: an encyclopedia of science and history. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorenzoni I, Nicholson-Cole S, Whitmarsh L (2007) Barriers perceived to engaging with climate change among the UK public and their policy implications. Glob Environ Chang 173:445–459

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malka A, Krosnick JA, Langer G (2009) The association of knowledge with concern about global warming: trusted information sources shape public thinking. Risk Anal 29:633–647

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mann ME, Bradley RS, Hughes MK (1999) Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: inferences, uncertainties, and limitations. Geophys Res Lett 26:759–762

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCright AM (2010) The effects of gender on climate change knowledge and concern in the American public. Popul Environ 32(1):66–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCright AM (2011) Political orientation moderates Americans’ beliefs and concern about climate change. Clim Chang 104:243–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCright AM, Dunlap RE (2011) The politicization of climate change and polarization in the American public’s views of global warming, 2001–2010. Sociol Q 52:155–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mertz O, Mbow C, Reenberg A, Diouf A (2009) Farmers’ perceptions of climate change and agricultural adaptation strategies in rural Sahel. Environ Manag 43:804–816

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller RF, Wigand PE (1994) Holocene changes in semi arid pinyon–juniper woodlands: response to climate, fire, and human activities in the U.S. Great Basin. Bioscience 44:465–474

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller WE, Shanks JM (1996) The New American Voter. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor R, Bord R, Fisher A (1999) Risk perceptions, general environmental beliefs, and willingness to address climate change. Risk Anal 19:455–465

    Google Scholar 

  • Pew Research Center (2010) Little change in opinions about global warming. Available at http://people-press.org/2010/10/27/little-change-in-opinions-about-global-warming/

  • Rosenberg NJ (1992) Adaptation of agriculture to climate change. Clim Chang 21:385–405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Safi AS, Smith WJ Jr, Liu Z (2012) Rural Nevada and climate change: vulnerability, beliefs, and risk perception. Risk Anal 32:1041–1059

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SAS Institute Inc (2008) SAS/STAT user’s guide, version 9.2. SAS Institute, Inc, Cary

    Google Scholar 

  • Siegel S, Castellan NJ Jr (1988) Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edn. McGraw-Hill, New York

  • U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Services (2010) Sate Fact Sheets: Nevada. Available at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/StateFacts/NV.htm. Accessed 8 Nov 2011

  • Wood BD, Vedlitz A (2007) Issue definition, information processing, and the politics of global warming. Am J Polit Sci 51:552–568

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yarnal B (1998) Integrated regional assessment and climate change impacts in river basins. Clim Res 11:65–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research is funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) grant # EPS0814372. The authors greatly appreciate the support of Dr. Gayle Dana and Dr. Thomas Piechota. Thanks are also extended to Ross Guida, Kiersten Bustos, Lauren Fossile, Russell Skuse, and Dr. Haroon Stephen. We express our appreciation to the ranchers and farmers for their participation. Finally we thank the anonymous reviewers and editors for their constructive comments and suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Regional Planning, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA, 15705, USA

    Zhongwei Liu

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, 89154, USA

    William James Smith Jr.

  3. School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Ahmad S. Safi

Authors
  1. Zhongwei Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. William James Smith Jr.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ahmad S. Safi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhongwei Liu.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

(DOCX 115 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Liu, Z., Smith, W.J. & Safi, A.S. Rancher and farmer perceptions of climate change in Nevada, USA. Climatic Change 122, 313–327 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0979-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0979-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation