The Relationships between Public Risk Perceptions of Climate Change, Environmental Sensitivity and Experience of Extreme Weather-Related Disasters: Evidence from Greece

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most pressing threats facing humanity in our times. Understanding public perceptions of climate change and its risks is the key to any mitigation and adaptation initiatives. Previous works discussed the influence of experiencing climate-related disasters, as well as the role of environmental sensitivity, but also acknowledged important regional variations, gaps and uncertainties. This work focuses on examining the relationship between personal disaster experience, risk perceptions of climate change and ideology with respect to the environment using the New Ecological Paradigm. The study exploits the results of a questionnaire survey in Greece, a characteristic example of the multihazard region of the Eastern Mediterranean. Results show that both direct disaster experience and a person’s views on the causes of recent disasters in the country are connected with environmental sensitivity and climate change risk perception in a positive way. Both factors are also correlated with views on the effects of climate change. The findings are in agreement with research outcomes in other areas of the world, showing the importance of disaster experience and the views on extreme events in influencing perceptions of climate change. The work contributes to the growing literature on risk perception of climate change and the role of natural hazards, by adding a new piece in the knowledge puzzle in the climate-sensitive and relatively data-poor region of the Eastern Mediterranean.