IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/e27k4.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Puerto Rican Farmers' Psychological Awareness of Climate Change, and Adaptation Perceptions after Hurricane Maria

Author

Listed:
  • Rodríguez-Cruz, Luis Alexis
  • Niles, Meredith

Abstract

Strengthening farmers’ adaptive capacity is important for decreasing their vulnerability to natural hazards in this changing climate, and for safeguarding local food systems. One key step in strengthening adaptive capacity is understanding the relationship between farmers’ experience with natural hazards and their perceptions of climate change, and its role in farmers’ decision making around climate change adaptation. Here we explore Puerto Rican farmers’ psychological distance of climate change after experiencing category 4 Hurricane Maria, in order to intersect the roles of experience, perceptions, and motivation for farmers’ decision-making around climate change adaptation. Farmers throughout Puerto Rico were surveyed by Extension Services’ agents (n = 405, 87% response rate) in 2018, eight months after Hurricane Maria. A structural equation model was used to evaluate how reported experience with past events and direct damages by Hurricane Maria related to farmers’ psychological distance of climate change, and the association of these variables to farmers’ motivation to adapt to climate change. We found that farmers psychological distance of climate change is both near and far, since they show a broad awareness to climate change’s impacts both locally and globally in different dimensions (temporal, geographical, and social). Reported experience and direct damages by the hurricane were not linked to their psychological distance of climate change, and these did not relate to their motivation to adapt. These results suggest that using extreme events as a driver for climate belief and action may no longer be relevant, especially in a context where there is a high level of climate change belief and continued threat of extreme events. Thus, broadening analysis beyond individual perceptions as drivers of climate adaptation to how structural dynamics are linked to adaptive capacity could provide better understanding. This study is among the first to study the role of climate change experience and perceptions on farmers’ climate change adaption after an extreme weather event in an island-archipelago setting.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodríguez-Cruz, Luis Alexis & Niles, Meredith, 2020. "Puerto Rican Farmers' Psychological Awareness of Climate Change, and Adaptation Perceptions after Hurricane Maria," SocArXiv e27k4, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:e27k4
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/e27k4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5ef26b5f76ebd80279cd6464/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/e27k4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elizabeth A Albright & Deserai Crow, 2019. "Beliefs about climate change in the aftermath of extreme flooding," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Jia-Wei Tang & Ming-Lun Chen & Tsai-Hsin Chiu, 2018. "An Exploratory Study on Local Brand Value Development for Outlying Island Agriculture: Local Food System and Actor–Network Theory Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, November.
    3. Alexa Spence & Wouter Poortinga & Nick Pidgeon, 2012. "The Psychological Distance of Climate Change," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(6), pages 957-972, June.
    4. Shaun Larcom & Po-Wen She & Terry Gevelt, 2019. "The UK summer heatwave of 2018 and public concern over energy security," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(5), pages 370-373, May.
    5. The Anh Luu & An Thinh Nguyen & Quoc Anh Trinh & Van Tuan Pham & Ba Bien Le & Duc Thanh Nguyen & Quoc Nam Hoang & Ha T.T. Pham & The Kien Nguyen & Van Nang Luu & Luc Hens, 2019. "Farmers’ Intention to Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture in the Red River Delta Biosphere Reserve (Vietnam): A Combination of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Protection Motivation Theory ," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-17, May.
    6. Anne M. van Valkengoed & Linda Steg, 2019. "Meta-analyses of factors motivating climate change adaptation behaviour," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(2), pages 158-163, February.
    7. W. Neil Adger, 2003. "Social Capital, Collective Action, and Adaptation to Climate Change," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 79(4), pages 387-404, October.
    8. Charlotte Jones & Donald W. Hine & Anthony D. G. Marks, 2017. "The Future is Now: Reducing Psychological Distance to Increase Public Engagement with Climate Change," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 331-341, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. D. Liliana González-Hernández & Raúl A. Aguirre-Gamboa & Erik W. Meijles, 2023. "The role of climate change perceptions and sociodemographics on reported mitigation efforts and performance among households in northeastern Mexico," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1853-1875, February.
    2. Sedighe Pakmehr & Masoud Yazdanpanah & Masoud Baradaran, 2021. "Explaining farmers’ response to climate change-induced water stress through cognitive theory of stress: an Iranian perspective," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 5776-5793, April.
    3. Paul M. Lohmann & Andreas Kontoleon, 2023. "Do Flood and Heatwave Experiences Shape Climate Opinion? Causal Evidence from Flooding and Heatwaves in England and Wales," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 86(1), pages 263-304, October.
    4. Joseph P. Reser & Graham L. Bradley, 2020. "The nature, significance, and influence of perceived personal experience of climate change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(5), September.
    5. Liang-Chu Ho & Yu-Hsien Sung & Chia-Chun Wu & Pei-Shan Lee & Wen-Bin Chiou, 2020. "Envisaging Mitigation Action Can Induce Lower Discounting toward Future Environmental Gains and Promote Pro-Environmental Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-12, November.
    6. Kim, Do-hun & Sjølie, Hanne K. & Aguilar, Francisco X., 2024. "Psychological distances to climate change and public preferences for biodiversity-augmenting attributes in family-owned production forests," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    7. Trisha R. Shrum, 2021. "The salience of future impacts and the willingness to pay for climate change mitigation: an experiment in intergenerational framing," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-20, March.
    8. Meifen Wu & Ruyin Long & Hong Chen & Jiaqi Wang, 2023. "The influence of risk perception on climate change communication behavior: a dual perspective of psychological distance and environmental values," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 118(1), pages 785-806, August.
    9. Haoran Chu & Janet Z. Yang, 2020. "Risk or Efficacy? How Psychological Distance Influences Climate Change Engagement," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(4), pages 758-770, April.
    10. Gerrath, Maximilian H.E.E. & Olya, Hossein & Shah, Zahra & Li, Huaiyu, 2024. "Virtual influencers and pro-environmental causes: The roles of message warmth and trust in experts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    11. Mary Guillard & Ghozlane Fleury-Bahi & Oscar Navarro, 2021. "Encouraging Individuals to Adapt to Climate Change: Relations between Coping Strategies and Psychological Distance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-15, January.
    12. Valentina Rizzoli, 2024. "The risk co-de model: detecting psychosocial processes of risk perception in natural language through machine learning," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 217-239, April.
    13. Ghanian, Mansour & M. Ghoochani, Omid & Dehghanpour, Mojtaba & Taqipour, Milad & Taheri, Fatemeh & Cotton, Matthew, 2020. "Understanding farmers’ climate adaptation intention in Iran: A protection-motivation extended model," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    14. Bumsub Jin, 2023. "The Antecedents of Collaborative Behavior for Climate Change Mitigation among South Koreans: The Moderation Analyses of a Sense of Community as Responsibility, Neighborliness, and Trust," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-15, August.
    15. Paramita, Widya & Indarti, Nurul & Virgosita, Risa & Herani, Rina & Sutikno, Bayu, 2022. "Let ethics lead your way: The role of moral identity and moral intensity in promoting social entrepreneurial intention," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    16. Moon, Won-Ki & Kahlor, Lee Ann & Olson, Hilary Clement, 2020. "Understanding public support for carbon capture and storage policy: The roles of social capital, stakeholder perceptions, and perceived risk/benefit of technology," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    17. Heckenhahn, Jonas & Feldhaus, Christoph & Löschel, Andreas, 2024. "Balancing climate change mitigation and national adaptation: Experimental evidence on the influence of risk perceptions and information construal levels," Ruhr Economic Papers 1090, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    18. Dominic Balog‐Way & Katherine McComas & John Besley, 2020. "The Evolving Field of Risk Communication," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(S1), pages 2240-2262, November.
    19. Mark Lubell & Mark Stacey & Michelle A. Hummel, 2021. "Collective action problems and governance barriers to sea-level rise adaptation in San Francisco Bay," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 1-25, August.
    20. Benjamin Volland, 2018. "Après nous le déluge? Perceived distance of climate change impacts and pro-environmental behaviour," IRENE Working Papers 18-05, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:e27k4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.