No abstract

Agriculture is both vulnerable to climate change impacts and a significant source of greenhouse gases. Increasing agriculture's resilience and reducing its contribution to climate change are societal priorities. Survey data collected from Iowa farmers are analyzed to answer the related research questions: (1) do farmers support adaptation and mitigation actions, and (2) do beliefs and concerns about climate change influence those attitudes. Results indicate that farmers who were concerned about the impacts of climate change on agriculture and attributed it to human activities had more positive attitudes toward both adaptive and mitigative management strategies. Farmers who believed that climate change is not a problem because human ingenuity will enable adaptations and who did not believe climate change is occurring or believed it is a natural phenomenon-a substantial percentage of farmers-tended not to support mitigation.

Agriculture is vulnerable to climate change and a source of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Farmers face pressures to adjust agricultural systems to make them more resilient in the face of increasingly variable weather (adaptation) and reduce GHG production (mitigation). This research examines relationships between Iowa farmers’ trust in environmental or agricultural interest groups as sources of climate information, climate change beliefs, perceived climate risks to agriculture, and support for adaptation and mitigation responses. Results indicate that beliefs varied with trust, and beliefs in turn had a significant direct effect on perceived risks from climate change. Support for adaptation varied with perceived risks, while attitudes toward GHG reduction (mitigation) were associated predominantly with variation in beliefs. Most farmers were supportive of adaptation responses, but few endorsed GHG reduction, suggesting that outreach should focus on interventions that have adaptive and mitigative properties (e.g., reduced tillage, improved fertilizer management).

Development of extension and outreach that effectively engage farmers in climate change adaptation and/or mitigation activities can be informed by an improved understanding of farmers' perspectives on climate change and related impacts. This research employed latent class analysis (LCA) to analyze data from a survey of 4,778 farmers from 11 US Corn Belt states. The research focused on two related research questions: (1) to what degree do farmers differ on key measures of beliefs about climate change, experience with extreme weather, perceived risks to agriculture, efficacy, and level of support for public and private adaptive and mitigative action; and (2) are there potential areas of common ground among farmers? Results indicate that farmers have highly heterogeneous perspectives, and six distinct classes of farmers are identified. We label these as the following: the concerned (14%), the uneasy (25%), the uncertain (25%), the unconcerned (13%), the confident (18%), and the detached (5%). These groups of farmers differ primarily in terms of beliefs about climate change, the degree to which they had experienced extreme weather, and risk perceptions. Despite substantial differences on these variables, areas of similarity were discerned on variables measuring farmers' (1) confidence that they will be able to deal with increases in weather variability and (2) support for public and private efforts to help farmers adapt to increased weather variability. These results can inform segmented approaches to outreach that target subpopulations of farmers as well as broader engagement strategies that would reach wider populations. Further, findings suggest that strategies with specific reference to climate change might be most effective in engaging the subpopulations of farmers who believe that climate change is occurring and a threat, but that use of less charged terms such as weather variability would likely be more effective with a broader range of farmers. Outreach efforts that (1) appeal to farmers' problem solving capacity and (2) employ terms such as "weather variability" instead of more charged terms such as "climate change" are more likely to be effective with a wider farmer audience.

Results from the Volcanic Concept Survey (VCS) indicated that many undergraduates do not fully understand volcanic systems and plate tectonics. During the 2006 academic year, a ten-item conceptual survey was distributed to undergraduate students enrolled in Earth science courses at five U.S. colleges and universities. A trained team of graders scored 672 completed surveys, coding responses to each item with a score, out of 3, based on accuracy and comprehensiveness. Questions requiring only basic content knowledge (e.g., terminology, volcano topology) received more high scoring responses than questions requiring higher thinking and deeper conceptual connections (association with plate tectonics, prediction of hazards and impacts on the environment). The mechanics of eruptions also appeared to be poorly understood. Special attention was paid to students' alternate conceptions about where volcanoes are likely to form. Male students, students highly interested in science, and students who lived in a volcanically active area received significantly higher total scores than other student groups. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors also performed significantly better than non-STEM majors. Understanding the nature of student comprehension and misconception may be useful for geoscience educators seeking to address student preconceptions and promote conceptual change.