IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/climat/v132y2015i2p193-207.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of local drought condition on public opinions about water supply and future climate change

Author

Listed:
  • Jason Evans
  • Jon Calabria
  • Tatiana Borisova
  • Diane Boellstorf
  • Nicki Sochacka
  • Michael Smolen
  • Robert Mahler
  • L. Risse

Abstract

A growing body of research indicates that opinions about long-term climate change and other natural resource issues can be significantly affected by current weather conditions (e.g., outside air temperature) and other highly contingent environmental cues. Although increased severity and frequency of droughts is regarded as a likely consequence of anthropogenic climate change, little previous research has attempted to relate the experience of drought with public attitudes about water supply or water-related climate change issues. For this study, a large set (n = 3,163) of public survey data collected across nine states of the southern United States was spatio-temporally linked with records of short-term (~12 weeks) and long-term (~5 years) drought condition at the level of each respondent’s zip code. Multivariate ordinal logistic regression models that included numerous other independent variables (environmental ideology, age, gender, education, community size, residency duration, and local annual precipitation) indicated highly significant interactions with long-term drought condition, but showed no significant effect from short-term drought condition. Conversely, attitudes about water-related climate change showed highly significant interactions with short-term drought, with weaker to no effects from long-term drought. While the finding of significant effects from short-term drought condition on opinions about future drought is broadly consistent with previous public opinion research on climate change, the finding of water supply attitudes being more responsive to longer term drought condition is, to our knowledge, a novel result. This study more generally demonstrates the methodological feasibility and applied importance of accounting for local drought condition when public opinion information is used to evaluate outreach programs for water conservation and climate change. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Jason Evans & Jon Calabria & Tatiana Borisova & Diane Boellstorf & Nicki Sochacka & Michael Smolen & Robert Mahler & L. Risse, 2015. "Effects of local drought condition on public opinions about water supply and future climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 193-207, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:132:y:2015:i:2:p:193-207
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-015-1425-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10584-015-1425-z
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10584-015-1425-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mike Hightower & Suzanne A. Pierce, 2008. "The energy challenge," Nature, Nature, vol. 452(7185), pages 285-286, March.
    2. Thomas Dietz & Linda Kalof & Paul C. Stern, 2002. "Gender, Values, and Environmentalism," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 83(1), pages 353-364, March.
    3. Aaron S. Routhe & Robert Emmet Jones & David L. Feldman, 2005. "Using Theory to Understand Public Support for Collective Actions that Impact the Environment: Alleviating Water Supply Problems in a Nonarid Biome," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(4), pages 874-897, December.
    4. Mansur, Erin T. & Olmstead, Sheila M., 2012. "The value of scarce water: Measuring the inefficiency of municipal regulations," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 332-346.
    5. Cynthia Rosenzweig & David Major & Kate Demong & Christina Stanton & Radley Horton & Melissa Stults, 2007. "Managing climate change risks in New York City’s water system: assessment and adaptation planning," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 12(8), pages 1391-1409, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aaron C. Sparks & Heather Hodges & Sarah Oliver & Eric R. A. N. Smith, 2020. "Confidence in Local, National, and International Scientists on Climate Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Jinyao Lin & Qitong Chen, 2023. "Analyzing and Simulating the Influence of a Water Conveyance Project on Land Use Conditions in the Tarim River Region," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-16, November.
    3. Llewelyn Hughes & David M. Konisky & Sandra Potter, 2020. "Extreme weather and climate opinion: evidence from Australia," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 723-743, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Olmstead, Sheila M. & Michael Hanemann, W. & Stavins, Robert N., 2007. "Water demand under alternative price structures," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 181-198, September.
    2. Erin T. Mansur, 2011. "Comment on "How Can Policy Encourage Economically Sensible Climate Adaptation?"," NBER Chapters, in: The Design and Implementation of US Climate Policy, pages 242-244, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Foster, John & Bell, William Paul & Wild, Phillip & Sharma, Deepak & Sandu, Suwin & Froome, Craig & Wagner, Liam & Misra, Suchi & Bagia, Ravindra, 2013. "Analysis of institutional adaptability to redress electricity infrastructure vulnerability due to climate change," MPRA Paper 47787, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Fernanda Guedes & Alexandre Szklo & Pedro Rochedo & Frédéric Lantz & Leticia Magalar & Eveline Maria Vásquez Arroyo, 2018. "Climate-Energy-Water Nexus in Brazilian Oil Refineries," Working Papers hal-03188594, HAL.
    5. Nataraj, Shanthi & Hanemann, W. Michael, 2011. "Does marginal price matter? A regression discontinuity approach to estimating water demand," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 198-212, March.
    6. Alberini, Anna & Bezhanishvili, Levan & Ščasný, Milan, 2022. "“Wild” tariff schemes: Evidence from the Republic of Georgia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    7. Enzo Loner, 2016. "A new way of looking at old things. An application of Guttman errors analysis to the study of environmental concern," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 823-847, March.
    8. Kaori Ando & Junkichi Sugiura & Susumu Ohnuma & Kim-Pong Tam & Gundula Hübner & Nahoko Adachi, 2019. "Persuasion Game: Cross Cultural Comparison," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 50(5), pages 532-555, October.
    9. Witkowski, Terrence H. & Reddy, Sabine, 2010. "Antecedents of ethical consumption activities in Germany and the United States," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 8-14.
    10. Rio Carrillo, Anna Mercè & Frei, Christoph, 2009. "Water: A key resource in energy production," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4303-4312, November.
    11. Measham, Thomas G. & Zhang, Airong, 2019. "Social licence, gender and mining: Moral conviction and perceived economic importance," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 363-368.
    12. Katrin Millock & Céline Nauges, 2010. "Household Adoption of Water-Efficient Equipment: The Role of Socio-Economic Factors, Environmental Attitudes and Policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 46(4), pages 539-565, August.
    13. Chen, Zi-yue & Huang, Zhen-hai & Nie, Pu-yan, 2018. "Industrial characteristics and consumption efficiency from a nexus perspective – Based on Anhui’s Empirical Statistics," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 281-290.
    14. Jhumur Sengupta, 2020. "The Effect of Non-pecuniary-based Incentive Mechanisms to Reduce Water Usage at the Household Level and to Achieve Positive Environmental Outcomes," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 21(5), pages 1232-1248, October.
    15. Umaerus, Patrik & Högvall Nordin, Maria & Lidestav, Gun, 2019. "Do female forest owners think and act “greener”?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 52-58.
    16. Ronald L. Schumann & Kevin D. Ash & Gregg C. Bowser, 2018. "Tornado Warning Perception and Response: Integrating the Roles of Visual Design, Demographics, and Hazard Experience," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(2), pages 311-332, February.
    17. Morioka, Rika, 2014. "Gender difference in the health risk perception of radiation from Fukushima in Japan: The role of hegemonic masculinity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 105-112.
    18. Fuente, David, 2019. "The design and evaluation of water tariffs: A systematic review," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    19. Vinayak, Pragun & Dias, Felipe F. & Astroza, Sebastian & Bhat, Chandra R. & Pendyala, Ram M. & Garikapati, Venu M., 2018. "Accounting for multi-dimensional dependencies among decision-makers within a generalized model framework: An application to understanding shared mobility service usage levels," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 129-137.
    20. Sauer, Timm & Havlik, Petr & Schneider, Uwe A. & Kindermann, Georg E. & Obersteiner, Michael, 2008. "Agriculture, Population, Land and Water Scarcity in a Changing World – The Role of Irrigation," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 44271, European Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:132:y:2015:i:2:p:193-207. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.