Abstract

We tested two consequences of a currently influential theory based on the notion of seeing adaptations to climate change as local adjustments to deal with changing conditions within the constraints of the broader economic-social-political arrangements. The notion leaves no explicit role for the strength of personal beliefs in climate change and adaptive capacity. The consequences were: (i) adaptive action to climate change taken by an individual who is exposed to and sensitive to climate change is not influenced to a considerable degree by their strength of belief in climate change and (ii) adaptive action to climate change taken by an individual who is exposed to and sensitive to climate change is not influenced to a considerable degree by their strength of belief in an adaptive capacity. Data from a 2004 questionnaire of 1950 Swedish private individual forest owners, who were assumed exposed to and sensitive to climate change, were used. Strength of belief in climate change and adaptive capacities were found to be crucial factors for explaining observed differences in adaptation among Swedish forest owners. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Adaptation; Belief; Adaptive capacity; Epistemic risk

Published in

Global Environmental Change
2009, Volume: 19, number: 1, pages: 100-104
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU Authors

• Blennow, Kristina

  • Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

Forest
Climate


Sustainable Development Goals

SDG13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts


UKÄ Subject classification

Landscape Architecture
Applied Psychology
Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.10.003

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/46006