Nature dependence and seasonality change perceptions for climate adaptation and mitigation

Abstract

Global climate change is a scientifically demonstrated phenomenon, but there are discrepancies in societies about how people perceive it. People’s correct perceptions to climate change are necessary for their cooperative acts and behaviors toward adaptation and mitigation. While most research in this regard focuses on temporal trends of specific climate variables, e.g., temperature and rainfall, in relation to socio-demographic factors, few reports have systematically examined who perceive a change in climatic regularity and patterns, i.e., seasonality change. We hypothesize that people tend to perceive the seasonality change as their life practices and experiences are dependent on climate and nature. Interviews with 7 experts and surveys with 1011 respondents were conducted in the Meghna basin, Bangladesh, where the number of seasons in an annual calendar is reported to have decreased from six to four (Islam and Kotani, 2016). With the data, this research investigates people’s perceptions to seasonality change in relation to life practices, experiences and socioeconomic factors. The analysis shows that dependence on natural resources in the profession along with experiences of natural disasters and life history in the dwelling locations shape people’s correct perceptions to climate seasonality. This result suggests that people are not likely to realize the seasonality change as they are dwelling in urban areas with high mobility or as their life is detached from climate and nature, being neither willing nor cooperative to take adaptation and mitigation.