The September 2020 Oregon wildfires were unprecedented in terms of their geographic scope and the number of communities affected by smoke and wildfire. Though it is difficult to directly attribute the event to climate change, scientists have noted the strong connection between warmer and drier conditions in the Western U.S. – conditions that are linked to climate change – and increasing wildfire risk. These wildfires thus had the potential to act as a “focusing event,” potentially strengthening public support for climate change policy. Political ideology is a well-known driver of public support for climate change mitigation policies in the U.S., but few studies have examined adaptation policy support. Moreover, other factors shaping post-event support for the two “pillars” of climate change policy—adaptation and mitigation—have rarely been compared. We conducted a survey of Oregonians within 6 months of the 2020 wildfires (n=1,308) to understand post-event support for climate mitigation and adaptation policies. We found that the magnitude of the association between political ideology and policy support was lower for adaptation policies than mitigation policy and there was no association with support for forest management changes. In contrast, selected socio-demographic characteristics played a more important role in support for selected adaptation policies than mitigation policy.

The Western United States has made significant contributions to agricultural products both domestically and internationally. As the Western U.S. continues to grapple with water scarcity and extended periods of drought, evidence of misalignment between crop production and the volume of water necessary to maintain abundant food yields is becoming more pronounced. There are several policy nudges and mitigation strategies that can be employed to bring water availability and crop selection into alignment. Whether there is public support for these policies, or knowledge of how policies could impact water use in agriculture, it is important to understand what those preferences are and how people weigh tradeoffs between developing agricultural and water use. Using random household surveys of residents in the western U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California, this study explores public water knowledge, the correlates of public water knowledge, and the impact knowledge has on preferred water policies while controlling for demographic characteristics, environmental efficacy, climate change belief, and political ideology. Findings show that knowledge does have an independent impact on preferred approaches to water policies while controlling for demographic characteristics, environmental efficacy, belief in climate change, and political ideology. Respondents who are knowledgeable about water recycling for food and water use for agriculture were significantly more supportive of water conservation policy approaches and less supportive of water supply-side approaches.

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Background: Recent push for ‘energy democracy’ necessitates a well-informed citizenry vis-à-vis energy policy, especially in the wake of ideologically charged and divergent views about the existence and severity of climate change among American citizens. Citizens’ involvement in energy policy processes in democratic countries makes it important to assess the depth and scope of energy policy awareness and knowledge among the public as well as to consider the factors that promote or hinder how informed people are about energy policy issues. Objectives: This study aims at examining the levels of public informedness and knowledge of energy policy and analyzing their potential correlates in the western U.S. states of California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The study also analyzes the impact of public awareness and knowledge on public support for government funding for renewable energy technology research. Methods: Using survey data of 1804 randomly selected respondents from California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, the study employs ordinal logistic regression to trans-situational and situational models predicting self-assessed informedness and objective measure of knowledge about energy policy as well as public support for federal funding for renewable energy technology research. Results: The study found that variables related to Socio-Economic Status (SES) are stronger predictor of public informedness and knowledge about energy policy than situational variables like values and efficacy, except for climate change beliefs that have positive relationship with informedness and knowledge. Conclusion: The study also found that informedness and knowledge of energy policy is positively associated with support for government funding for renewable energy research.

Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity owing to climate change. Individual‐level behavioural responses—notably, disaster preparedness and community helping actions (such as donating and volunteering)—supplement government efforts to respond to such phenomena, but rarely have they been explored together. Using data from a survey administered soon after the 2020 Oregon wildfires, this paper compares a range of socio‐demographic, experiential, attitudinal, and communication‐related factors associated with these two individual‐level behavioural responses. Findings indicate that respondents who reported experiencing a higher degree of harm and heightened concern about climate change after the wildfires were more likely to report disaster preparedness and community helping actions. Those who reported more frequent informal discussions about the wildfires, consulting more sources to seek information on them, and higher percentages of friends, neighbours, and community members taking actions to prepare for future wildfires also reported more disaster preparedness and community helping actions. Disaster preparedness actions were also positively associated with seeking information from formal/official sources.