Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Climate change beliefs in an agricultural context: what is the role of values held by farming and non-farming groups?

  • Published:
Climatic Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Climate change in many agricultural contexts will increase tensions between farming and non-farming populations over adaptations in land use and water conservation strategies. How adequately these future tensions may be mitigated will be partially determined by each groups' beliefs about climate change. A voluminous literature shows that climate change beliefs are crucial for understanding engagement with climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, and that values motivate climate change beliefs, but the role of values remains unclear, and comparisons of farming and non-farming populations are scant. We develop a model of climate change beliefs that integrates four main motivating factors - values, political ideology, knowledge, and worldview - and we explicitly compare members of farming and non-farming populations in an agricultural watershed in the Central Great Plains, USA. Our findings highlight the role of held values in motivating climate change beliefs and point to areas of potential consensus and tension within and among members of these two groups. The results provide an empirical basis for developing future climate change engagement strategies in contexts of growing divides and conflicts among farming and non-farming groups.

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

  • Abramowitz AI, Saunders KL (2008) Is polarization really a myth? J Polit 70:542–555

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adger WN, Dessai S, Goulden M, Hulme M, Lorenzoni I, Nelson DR, Naess LO, Wolf J, Wreford A (2009) Are there social limits to adaptation to climate change? Clim Chang 93:335–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adger, W.N., J. Barnett, F.S. Chapin III, H. Ellemor. 2011. This must be the place: underrepresentation of identity and meaning in climate change decision-making. Glob Environ Pol 11, 1–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arbuckle MB (2017) The interaction of religion, political ideology, and concern about climate change in the United States. Soc Nat Resour 30(2):177–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arbuckle JG et al (2013a) Climate change beliefs, concerns, and attitudes toward adaptation and mitigation among farmers in the Midwestern United States. Clim Chang 117:943–950

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arbuckle JG et al (2013b) Farmer beliefs and concerns about climate change and attitudes toward adaptation and mitigation: evidence from Iowa. Clim Chang 118:551–563

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arbuckle JG, Hobbs J, Loy A, Morton LW, Prokopy LS, Tyndall J (2014) Understanding Corn Belt farmer perspective climate change to inform engagement strategies for adaptation and mitigation. J Soil Water Conserv 69(6):505–516

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arbuckle JG, Tyndall JC, Morton LW, Hobbs J (2017) Climate change typologies and audience segmentation among Corn Belt farmers. J Soil Water Conserv 72(3):205–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bollen K (1989) Structural equations with latent variables. John Wiley and Sons, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Caldas MM et al (2015) Endogenizing culture in sustainability science research and policy. Proc Natl Acad Sci 112:8157–8159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collomb J-D (2014) The ideology of climate change denial in the United States. Eur J Am Stud, 9(1). Retrieved from http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/10305

  • Converse PE (1964) The nature of belief systems in mass publics. In: Apter D (ed) Ideology and discontent. Free Press, New York, pp 206–261

    Google Scholar 

  • Corner A et al (2012) Uncertainty, skepticism, and attitudes toward climate change: biased assimilation and attitude polarization. Clim Chang 114:463–478

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corner A et al (2014) Public engagement with climate change: the role of human values. WIRES Clim Change 5:411–422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson D (2016) Gaps in agricultural climate adaptation research. Nat Clim Chang 6:433–435

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dietz T (2015) Environmental values. In: Brosch T, Sander D (eds) Oxford Handbook of Values. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 329–349

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Dietz T et al (2007) Support for climate change policy: social psychological and social structural influences. Rural Sociol 72:185–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dietz T et al (2009) How deliberation affects stated willingness to pay for mitigation of carbon dioxide emissions: an experiment. Land Econ 85:329–347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Douglas M, Wildavsky A (1983) Risk and culture: an essay on the selection of technical and environmental dangers. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Erikson RS, Tedin KL (2003) American public opinion, 6th edn. Longman, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Feldman S (2003) Values, ideology, and structure of political attitudes. In: DO Sears L, Huddy RJ (eds) Oxford handbook of political psychology. Oxford Univ. Press, New York, pp 477–508

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry AD, Dietz T (2012) Understanding environmental cognition. Organ Environ 25:238–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hitlin S (2003) Values as the core of personal identity: drawing links between the two theories of self. Soc Psychol Q 66(2):118–137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman AJ (2011) The growing climate divide. Nat Clim Chang 1:195–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyland JJ, Jones DL, Parkhill KA, Barnes AP, Willams AP (2016) Farmers’ perceptions of climate change: identifying types. Agric Hum Values 33:323–339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 2014. In: Pachauri, R.K. Meyer, L.A. (Eds.), Climate change 2014: synthesis report. Contribution of working groups I, II and III to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. IPCC, Geneva

  • Jost JT, Federico CM, Napier JL (2009) Political ideology: its structure, functions, and elective affinities. Annu Rev Psychol 60:307–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahan DM et al (2011) Cultural cognition of scientific consensus. J Risk Res 14:147–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahan DM et al (2012) The polarizing impact of science literacy and numeracy on perceived climate change risks. Nat Clim Chang 2:732–735

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiem AS, Austin EK (2013) Drought and the future of rural communities: opportunities and challenges for climate change adaptation in regional Victoria, Australia. Glob Environ Chang 23:1307–1316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohut, Andrew, Carroll Doherty, Michael Dimock, and Scott Ketter, "Beyond Red vs. Blue: Political Typology." May 4, 2011, Pew Center for People and the Press, Washington, D.C. http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/legacy-pdf/Beyond-Red-vs-Blue-The-Political-Typology.pdf

  • Layman GC, Carsey TM (2002) Party polarization and “conflict extension” in the American electorate. Am J Polit Sci 46:786–802

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCright AM (2011) Political orientation moderates Americans’ beliefs and concerns 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 

  • McCright AM, Dunlap RE, Marquart-Pyatt ST (2015) Political ideology and views about climate change in the European Union. Environ Polit 25(2):338–358

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCright AM et al (2016) Ideology, capitalism, and climate: explaining public views about climate change in the United States. Energy Res Soc Sci 21:180–189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGuire JM, Morton LW, Cast AD (2012) Reconstructing the good farmer identity: shifts in farmer identities and farm management practices to improve water quality. Agric Hum Values

  • McGuire JM, Morton LW, Arbuckle JG, Cast AD (2015) Farmer identities and responses to the socio-biophysical environment. J Rural Stud 39:145–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melillo, J.M., et al., 2014. Climate change impacts in the United States: the third national climate assessment. US Global Change Research Program, 841 pp. https://doi.org/10.7930/J0Z31WJ2.

  • Morton LW, McGuire JM, Cast AD (2017) A good farmer pays attention to the weather. Climate Risk Management 15:18–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Myers TA et al (2013) The relationship between personal experience and belief in the reality of global warming. Nat Clim Chang 3:343–347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • NRC (National Research Council) (1996) Understanding risk: informing decisions in a democratic society. National Academies Press, Washington, D.C

    Google Scholar 

  • NRC (National Research Council) (2008) Public participation in environmental assessment and decision making. In: National Academies Press. D.C, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • NRC (National Research Council) (2010) Advancing the science of climate change: America’s climate choices. National Academies Press, Washington, D.C

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor RE, Bord RJ, Yarnal B, Wiefek N (2002) Who wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Soc Sci Q 83:1–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor R et al (2012) Risk perceptions, general environmental beliefs, and willingness to address climate change. Clim Chang 114:479–495

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palm R, Lewis GB, Feng B (2017) What causes people to change their opinion about climate change? Ann Am Assoc Geogr 107(4):883–896

    Google Scholar 

  • Pimentel D et al (1997) Water resources: agriculture, the environment, and society. BioScience 47:97–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pradhananga AK, Davenport MA, Fulton DC, Maruyama GM, Current D (2017) An integrated moral obligation model for landowner conservation norms. Soc Nat Resour 30(2):212–227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prokopy LS et al (2015) Farmers and climate change: a cross-national comparison of beliefs and risk perceptions in high-income countries. Environ Manag 56:492–504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz SH, Boehnke K (2004) Evaluating the structure of human values with confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of Research in Personality 38:230–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shcherbak I et al (2014) Global metaanalysis of the nonlinear response of soil nitrous oxide (N2o) emissions to fertilizer nitrogen. Proc Natl Acad Sci 111:9199–9204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spence A et al (2012) The psychological distance of climate change. Risk Anal 32:957–972

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stern PC (2016) Impacts on climate change views. Nat Clim Chang 6:341–342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stern PC, Dietz T (1994) The value basis of environmental concern. J Soc Issues 50:65–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stern PC, Dietz T (2015) IPCC: social scientists are ready. Nature 521:161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stern PC et al (1995) Values, beliefs, and proenvironmental action: attitude formation toward emergent attitude objects. J Appl Soc Psychol 25:1611–1636

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stern PC et al (1999) A value-belief-norm theory of support for social movements: the case of environmentalism. Hum Ecol Rev 6:81–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Stern PC et al (2016) Towards a science of climate and energy choices. Nat Clim Chang 6:547–555

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson KT, Peterson MN, Bondell HD, Moore SE, Carrier SJ (2014) Overcoming skepticism with education: interacting influences of worldview and climate change knowledge on perceived climate change risk among adolescents. Clim Chang 126:293–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stuart D, Schewe RL (2016) Constrained choice and climate change mitigation in US agriculture: structural barriers to a climate change ethic. J Agric Environ Ethics 29:369–385

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stuart D, Schewe RL, McDermott M (2012) Responding to climate change: barriers to reflexive modernization in US agriculture. Organ Environ 25(3):308–327

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tranter B, Booth K (2015) Skepticism in a changing climate: a cross-national study. Glob Environ Chang 33:154–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vedwan N (2006) Culture, climate and the environment: local knowledge and perception of climate change among apple growers in northwestern India. J Ecol Anthropol 10:4–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ziegler A (2017) Political orientation, environmental values, and climate change beliefs and attitudes: an empirical cross country analysis. Energy Econ 63:144–153

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Kansas State University, 204 Waters, 1603 Old Claflin Place, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Matthew R. Sanderson

  2. Department of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University, 307 Waters Hall, 1603 Old Claflin Place, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Jason S. Bergtold & Steven M. Ramsey

  3. Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Kansas State University, 2076 Rathbone Hall, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Jessica L. Heier Stamm

  4. Department of Geography, Kansas State University, 1001 Seaton Hall, 920 N. 17th St., Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Marcellus M. Caldas

  5. Department of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Business, New Mexico State University, 387 Gerald Thomas Hall, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA

    Steven M. Ramsey

  6. Department of Political Science, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Auburn University, 331 Tichenor Hall, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA

    Joseph Aistrup

Authors
  1. Matthew R. Sanderson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jason S. Bergtold
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jessica L. Heier Stamm
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Marcellus M. Caldas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Steven M. Ramsey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Joseph Aistrup
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew R. Sanderson.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(PDF 2294 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sanderson, M.R., Bergtold, J.S., Heier Stamm, J.L. et al. Climate change beliefs in an agricultural context: what is the role of values held by farming and non-farming groups?. Climatic Change 150, 259–272 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2283-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2283-2

Search

Navigation