Public Knowledge and Awareness of Climate Changes Among People in China

Abstract

Measuring the public understanding, knowledge and perceptions towards recent climate change is become a growing research interest in the last two decades. The public understanding and knowledge can be measured through in-depth individual interviews, questionnaires and case studies. In the present study, the public awareness and knowledge towards climate change was measured using questionnaire which was distributed among 160 individuals in four regions of China (Shenzhen, Foshan, Zhuhai and Guangzhou). In general, the individuals showed moderate knowledge and understanding about climate change issue causes, impacts and suggested solutions. The items measuring “impacts of climate change” and “suggested solutions” were the only significant variables (P<0.05) in the different regions. Other measures did not show significant different in their scores (P<0.05). The self-reported knowledge was high among the respondents (97.5%) which indicate dependence of individuals in the four regions for traditional knowledge to obtain the recent updates and information about climate change. It is concluded that the public understanding and knowledge among individuals in China is moderate and further efforts needed to be done to improve the general knowledge and perception about climate change issue in the different media resources such as TV and newspaper.