Space-time perception and behavioral response of farmers to climate change: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China

Abstract

It is of great significance for global environmental governance to guide farmers to effectively perceive climate change. Based on the survey data of 540 farmers in Sichuan Province, China, this study used binary Logit model and Multinomial Logistic Regression model to explore the effects of farmers’ space-time perception of climate change and their interaction effects on farmers’ adaptation behavior to climate change. The results showed that: (1) 88.51% of farmers took adaptation measures to climate change, and 61.11% of them took both passive and active adaptation measures. Among the 7 measures, the highest rate of “Increase irrigation” is 23%, and the lowest rate of “Migrant work” is only 5%. (2) The scale difference of farmers’ time perception of climate change has a significant positive impact on their adaptive behavior of climate change. In terms of time: climate change perception in the next 5 years > in the next 10 years > in the next 15 years. (3) The scale difference of farmers’ space perception of climate change has a significant positive impact on their adaptation behavior to climate change. In other words, spatially, farmers’ perception of climate change is global > national > local village (the perception of local province is not significant). (4) Farmers’ space-time perception of climate change significantly affects farmers’ adaptive behavior. Among them, “farmers’ perception of climate change in the next 5 years” and their own “village’s perception of climate change” play an important role. This study will help deepen the understanding of farmers’ perception of climate change and their adaptive behavior, and provide reference for national policy making.

Carbon Neutrality Goal Is Too Far Away? Residents’ Psychological Distance of Low-Carbon Policy Over Time and Space in China

“…This corroborates the findings of the previous studies that the residents' perceptions of the effects of global warming and climate change are global, as demonstrated by Katz et al (2020) and Berger et al (2019). The public's spatial psychological distance and spatial perception of climate change are global (Busch and Ayala Chávez, 2022;Ma et al, 2022). The implementation of policies to reduce greenhouse pollution will only show long-term benefits at the global level (Sun et al, 2022).…”

“…Many studies have shown this temporal preference for residents' spatial psychological distance to be distant from their temporal psychological distance, such as those by Keller et al (2022), Gubler et al (2019), Wang et al (2019), and Lee and Barnett (2020). However, it has also been found that residents are more sensitive to spatial psychological distance than temporal psychological distance (Ma et al, 2022). This may be due to differences in age and occupation of the participants in different studies; for example, the latter study group included farmers who were more closely associated with the climate (Ma et al, 2022).…”

“…However, it has also been found that residents are more sensitive to spatial psychological distance than temporal psychological distance (Ma et al, 2022). This may be due to differences in age and occupation of the participants in different studies; for example, the latter study group included farmers who were more closely associated with the climate (Ma et al, 2022). In terms of the relationship with policy, a closer psychological distance is positively associated with support for policy (Chu, 2022).…”

“…Qualitative studies have shown that psychological distance is important for people's mental representation of climate change (Keller et al, 2022). The psychological temporal distance to climate change can be expressed in terms of years (Ma et al, 2022). A decrease in psychological distance leads to an increase in specific emotions, such as fear, while an increase in psychological distance leads to an increase in hope (Chu & Yang, 2019).…”

Effect of Farmers’ Awareness of Climate Change on Their Willingness to Adopt Low-Carbon Production: Based on the TAM-SOR Model

“…In recent years, a growing number of scholars have realized that farmers are often rational in specific climate change risk scenarios. Farmers will take adaptive actions in combination with their own capabilities while pursuing maximum benefits [40,41]. Most farmers realize that the extreme weather caused by climate change has caused crop yield reduction, which has greatly hindered their production and livelihoods, and increased the uncertainty of agricultural input and output [42].…”