ABSTRACT
Climate change is expected to severely impact agricultural practices in many important food-producing regions, including the Northeast United States. Changing climate conditions, such as increases in the amount of rainfall, will require farmers to adapt. Yet, little is known with regard to farmers' perceptions and understandings about climate change, especially in the industrialized country context. This paper aims at overcoming this research limitation, as well as determining the existing contextual, cognitive, and psychological barriers that can prevent adoption of sustainable practices of farmers in New York State. The study is framed within the adaptive capacity and risk perception literature, and is based on a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with farmers in 21 farms in two counties in Central New York. The results reveal diverging views about the long-term consequences of climate change. Results also reveal that past experience remains as the most important source of information that influences beliefs and perceptions about climate change, confirming previous research.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Agriculture/methods , Agriculture/organization & administration , Climate Change , Farmers , Perception , Crops, Agricultural/growth & development , Developed Countries , Farmers/psychology , Farms/organization & administration , Humans , New YorkABSTRACT
In late 2009, a series of e-mails related to climate research were made public following the hacking into a server and the e-mail accounts of researchers at the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit. According to some skeptics of climate change research, the content of those e-mails suggested data were being manipulated, while climate scientists said their words were taken out of context. The news coverage of this scandal provides an opportunity to consider media framing. This study has two aims: to extend previous research using a cluster analysis technique to discern frames in media texts; and to provide insight into newspaper coverage of the scandal, which is often referred to as "Climategate." This study examines the frames present in two British and two American newspapers' coverage of the issue.
