Climatic impacts on socio-cultural behavior, health and psychology of rural communities in South East Nigeria

Abstract

Climatic effects on aquatic ecosystems are expected to have significant implications on communities using them as drinking water and food sources. The challenges have increased given lack of baseline study and inability to predict accurately how people respond to changing climate, given the variability, flexibility and creativity shown by communities under change. Using quantitative survey technique, 1000 residents in 4 communities were asked to strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and/or strongly agree with range of statements. Climatic impacts on culture, behavior, environment, psychology, health and other health related issues were investigated. Results showed strong relationship between the variables and people's perception towards climate change. Participants, 3.52 and 18.40% strongly disagreed or disagreed on effects of climate change, 14.48% did not believe in the reality of climate change, 40.20 and 23.40% agreed or strongly agreed on the impacts of changing climate in various aspect of their lives. Mean residents which agreed and/or strongly agreed that climate change affected their culture ranged from 23.20–49.90%, behavior 32.00–49.71%, environment 35.00–57.00%, psychology 22.67–61.00%, health 30.40–53.60%, and health related issues 0–52%. Residents health and psychology were mostly affected (p < 0.05); suggesting that climate change poses significant risk to humans. Thus, sustainable approach on how to best deal with the changes/challenges are required.