It’s the water, stupid! Public perception of climate change consequences in South Bohemia, Czech Republic (original) (raw)

Social perception of climate change consequences in the Czech Republic and Germany

2014

Climate change is probably the biggest present-day environmental problem and a great global challenge. The impact of climate change, direct or indirect, can affect whole societies as well as individuals. We wanted to explore the perception of possible climate change impacts in two Central European countries with different climate change awareness and public discourse. The study was carried out among the population of two regions in the Czech Republic and Germany. These regions are situated in the South Bohemia Region and the federal state of Brandenburg. In total, we asked more than 1000 respondents for their assessment of the impact of ten climate change consequences. We present the results on the perceived impact on different levels (global, country, personal), and the effect of socio-demographic characteristics using the concept of social vulnerability. The results show that water related issues, like water scarcity, droughts or foods are perceived as the most severe climate change consequences. There are considerable differences between the national samples, e.g. Czechs are more concerned about new diseases or species extinction, Germans about climate tax. Overall, Czech respondents show a higher risk perception, they are more concerned about most of the potential consequences than Germans. Regarding the different levels of impacts, respondents in both countries expect a higher impact on the global level than for their countries or themselves. The social vulnerability concept is a stronger predictor in the Czech Republic than in Germany; here the more vulnerable population expects higher impacts on the country and personal levels. Low education and low income are more important predictors than high age. We discuss possible causes of the results in the context of both countries.

Attitudes to climate change from the perspective of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland

2021

Successful climate change mitigation and adaptation depend on several factors that are crucial for the effective implementation of the environmental policy tools in a country. One of these is the people ́s attitudes to this issue, their awareness about it, and their willingness to change their behaviour in a way that will contribute to a cleaner environment. Climate change is a serious problem and the recent changes are the real reason for our concerns. The impact of global warming is transforming our environment, and, especially, increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued in October 2018 its Special Report on the impact of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways. Without stepping up international climate action, global average temperature increase could soon reach 2°C and will continue to rise. This will have an irreversible climate impa...

Perception, understanding, and action: attitudes of climate change in the Hungarian population

This study is based on a non-representative, national level survey sample whose main purpose is to interpret the general population’s understanding of climate change. The study also provides an examination of correlations between climate change concerns and the taking of individual action as well as the relationship between pro-environmental thinking and climate change scepticism. Our results show a moderate correlation between the general population’s concerns and the professional views on the subject, known in the literature as the New Environmental Paradigm scale and Scepticism scale, but a significantly weaker correlation when it comes to taking action against climate change. Factors relating to the respondents, such as residence settlement type, education level, gender, age, personal and social values, or casual attributions in relation to climate change heavily influence this weaker correlation. Most respondents assessed climate change as a current (urgent), but geographically remote phenomenon. This is a clear indication of problems associated with cognitive conceptualization and the localization of climate change in communication. The target audience must be taken into account when designing climate change communications because interpretations of climate change can vary widely and cover a broad range attitudes ranging from concern about to issue all the way to climate change scepticism. This also applies to views concerning responsibility for climate change with some believing it is a political responsibility and others believing it is a scientific responsibility.

Social Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Climate Change in Poland and in Turkey

Economic and Environmental Studies, 2017

Climate change is perceived as a threat to future human well-being and a challenge to sustainable development of local communities and economies worldwide. While some countries and regions are expected to experience slight gains from the climatic changes the other are exposed to major losses. Ever more frequent natural disasters come as warning symptoms of the changes. However, for the sake of effective and efficient adaptation in various world regions answers to the following questions are important: do people notice this changes, do they experience their negative effects, are they satisfied with the climate change mitigation and adaptation actions taken by the governments, are they willing to participate to contribute to these actions. The perceptions and attitudes towards these issues are important factors in effective and efficient implementation of climate policies. In order to contribute to this important goal a research was designed to elicit people's perceptions of and attitudes towards climate change as well as related mitigation and adaptation policies in Poland and in Turkey. These two countries were chosen to cover the variety of climate conditions. The aim of the paper is to present and analyse the outcomes collected from the conducted national Internet surveys (N=156) on perceptions of climate change as well as social expectations regarding climate change solutions in both countries. Analysis of the survey results help to understand the problems and social needs related to climate change. The results were confronted with the state-of-the-art scientific literature as well as strategic policy documents and their evaluations' reports to discuss the policy relevance of the findings and conclusions.

Impacts of Climate Variables on Residential Water Consumption in the Czech Republic

Water Resources Management, 2012

Do landowners realize (and privately fund) natural water retention measures (NWRM) on their own land? Why? And how are they capable of assessing the hydrological and ecological effects of these measures? The Czech case study presents the story of an individual farmer who decided to invest his private resources in water retention and biodiversity enhancement while continuing his farming practices. We describe the historical and geographical background of the case study as well as the farmer's motivations and beliefs. We also discuss the scaling-up potential of the presented case. Information for the case study was gathered with a mixed-methodology approach that combined official statistical sources of cadastral records, content analyses of local media articles, a field survey and communication with the farmer during an excursion to his farm. The intention is to show the alternative when considering NWRM implementation. This alternative is heading the same direction as public subsidy schemes. Private initiatives may support (instead of undermine) public policy goals, and they are often faster and cheaper.

Public Perception on Hydro-Climatic Extremes and Water Management Related to Environmental Exposure, SE Hungary

Water Resources Management, 2017

Increasing climate extremities, as consequences of climate change, highly affect the public and farmers in the SE Carpathian Basin. Our research aimed at the investigation of the perceptions and experiences of public, farmers and decision-makers on drought and inland excess water problems on the Hungarian part of this region, since their knowledge and cooperation are essential in the future planning of sustainable water management. Their opinions were explored by 481 questionnaires and 52 in-depth interviews addressing the perceived climate change impacts in everyday life and agriculture, causes of drought and inland excess water, possibilities of mitigation and adaptation, and sustainability of the present farming structure. The spatial distribution of the answers was compared with the spatial pattern of drought and inland excess water sensitivity based on environmental indicators. The results confirmed their high correspondence reflecting a realistic knowledge on severity, significance and the contributing factors. Individual responsibility, the lack of financial resources and an uncertain vision of public were considered as major weak points that could be improved to foster the implementation of an effective water management strategy. High efforts are necessary to outline the framework of inclusive planning processes with exact roles of all actors and find ways to motivate cooperation willingness and increase individual responsibility.

Climate change perception in Romania

Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 2022

In the last decades, anthropogenic drivers have significantly influenced the natural climate variability of Earth's atmosphere. Climate change has become a subject of major interest for different levels of our society, such as national governments, businesses, local administration, or citizens. While national and local policies propose mitigation and adaptation strategies for different sectors, public perception is a key component of any implementation plan. This study investigates the CC perception in Romania, based on a national-scale online survey performed in the spring of 2020, aiming to outline the prominence of environmental and CC issues, level of information and interest, perceived causes, changes perceived in meteorological phenomena at the regional scale, perceived impacts, and the psychological representation of the CC. The study investigates single causal factors of perception. We found that particularly (i) the regional differences on climate change intensity strongly bias the perception of CC causes; (ii) age is very likely to influence the acceptance of CC, the importance of environmental issues, and the levels of information and interest; while (iii) age, gender, and place of residence (rural-urban) are very likely to control the changes perceived in the occurrence of various meteorological phenomena, and their impact. This research is the first statistically relevant analysis (± 4%, statistical significance) developed at national and regional scales and the only study of climate change perception performed during the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania. Its results may represent the baseline for more in-depth research.

Climate Change Awareness and the Attitudes of Adolescents inthe Czech Republic

2015

This study analyses the distribution of climate change awareness of Czech adolescent students and their climate change related attitudes. Even though the influence of accessed information on actual behaviour is usually described as rather small by most studies, we would like to point out that the effect of knowledge on a specific behaviour can become significant from a long-term perspective – but we lack this kind of academic result because of methodological issues (Bas, 2010). Thus the main focus of this exploratory study is to offer a segmentation of Czech adolescents regarding the issue of climate change as it relates to the information sources they trust and as it relates to particular types of information on climate change – such as documents, processes, terms or numerical data. A sample of self-selected students from Masaryk University and students from several grammar schools in the Czech Republic participated in a quantitative study focusing on their knowledge of climate cha...

Climate Change Impacts and Responses in the Czech Republic and Europe

The paper discusses the development of European policies and measures aimed at securing water demands by replenishing, saving and protecting the European water resources. Recent European policies and legislation give preference to soft solutions and measures for water quality protection, rather than hard solutions, such as construction of water storage reservoirs, which were formerly used for meeting water demands. A case study from the Czech Republic describes results showing possible reservoir storage capacities which could be necessary in future for compensation of climate change impacts on flows, and particularly on low flows. The required storage capacities are derived from drought deficit volumes calculated from monthly flow series simulated for natural climate conditions and for the conditions affected by climate change. For the derivation of the deficit volumes, the discharge whose probability of exceedence is 70% (Q 70%,) was used as the threshold.

Public Perception of Climate Change in a Period of Economic Crisis

Climate, 2015

The present study surveys the opinion of the residents of the Athens area in Greece on a wide range of issues related to climate change, such as their environmental consciousness and awareness and their willingness to take action against climate change. This study is performed at a time of a severe economic crisis in Greece. Based on a questionnaire, this study examines the general trends reported on various environmental issues, more particularly concerning climate change. The main results are that Greek citizens are aware of the problems of environmental and of climate change and also believe that the environmental quality of Greece is quite poor. They believe they are fairly well informed about climate change. However, the current economic crisis in Greece has reversed the progress made in the past concerning the awareness of climate change. Also, the citizens have very low confidence in the public authorities and the big enterprises to deal with climate change, while they have high level of trust in scientific and environmental organizations. They agree with public actions, but are against individual actions to protect the environment as they consider the main stakeholders (state, industry) to be mainly responsible for environmental degradation.