DO SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND SOURCES OF INFORMATION RELATE TO CLIMATE CHANGE AWARENESS? EVIDENCE FROM AFROBAROMETER ROUND 7 DATA

Abstract

Climate change has been considered the most significant environmental catastrophe which is currently threatening human survival. Like the rest of other countries on the African continent, climate change in Nigeria has debilitating effects on both the people and the community due to vulnerability and poor coping capability of the people. Numerous studies related to the problem of rising temperatures in Africa are now being carried out and documented. However, only a little research evidence is available, particularly from Nigeria, regarding the way socio-demographic factors and sources of information are related to climate change awareness. The Afrobarometer Round 7 data for Nigeria was released in 2019 with a sample of 1600 drawn from the 36 states in the country through a clustered, stratified, multi-stage, random sample. The data were subjected to different statistical analyses of t-test, ANOVA, correlation, and regression. The study found that a majority of participants received information about climate change on the internet, social media, TV, and radio. Only a few of the participants obtained climate change-related information from the newspapers. The results showed significant differences in climate change awareness based on gender and place of respondents’ residences. One-way ANOVA showed that significant differences exist in climate change awareness among educational and regional groups. However, no significant difference was found in the awareness of climate change among age groups. In contrast, a significant positive relationship among gender, place of residence, region, and awareness of climate change was observed. Internet news and climate change awareness were found to be negatively significantly related. Stepwise regression analysis showed that internet news was the most parsimonious set of climate change predictors. It is suggested that for a better understanding of climate change, government agencies and other stakeholders should use the internet and various social media platforms to disseminate information related to climate change. Subscription to social media platforms should be made cheap for the citizens for broader coverage which in turn engenders well-informed citizenry.