Drought Adaptation and Climate Change Beliefs among Working Ranchers in Montana

Abstract

24Agricultural producers may be particularly vulnerable to climate impacts such as 25 drought. To better understand how ranchers respond to ongoing drought, and the 26 relationship between climate change beliefs and drought adaptation, in-depth interviews 27 with working ranchers were conducted. Ranchers described drought conditions as 28 unprecedented and detailed the interacting impacts of drought and other non-climatic 29 stressors. They viewed adaptation as critical and employed a wide range of responses to 30 drought, but lack of financial resources, risks associated with change, local social norms, 31 and optimism about future moisture created barriers to change. Most ranchers attributed 32 drought to natural cycles and were skeptical about anthropogenic climate change. Many 33 ranchers likened current drought conditions to past droughts, concluding that conditions 34 would return to "normal." A belief in natural cycles provided a sense hope for some 35 ranchers, but felt immutable to others, reducing their sense of agency and efficacy. Taken 36 together, climate skepticism, optimism about future conditions, lack of financial 37 resources, and a limited sense of agency might be reducing investments in long-term 38 adaptation. However, the relationship between climate change beliefs and adaptation 39 action was not entirely clear, since the handful of ranchers adapting in anticipation of 40 long-term drought were skeptical or uncertain about anthropogenic climate change. 41

Beef Quality Assurance national rancher survey: program participation, best management practices, and motivations for joining future sustainability programs

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Farmers Adapt to Climate Change Irrespective of Stated Belief in Climate Change or Farm Advisor Reinforcement of (Dis)belief: A Case Study in Northern California

“…Findings that most farmers in this region attribute drought to natural cycles and express skepticism in anthropogenic climate change are consistent with previous studies (Yung et al 2015;Liu et al 2014). Divergent from previous conclusions that belief in natural cycles both reduces ranchers' sense of agency to act and facilitates optimism that a cyclically changing climate will return to normal (Yung et al 2015), I nd that many farmers believe that climate change is cyclical, while also asserting concerns that those cycles will get worse.…”

“…Across interviewees, farmers were adapting to climate impacts irrespective of how they described weather events and trends, or whether they believed in anthropogenic climate change. In addition to shortterm adaptive measures in response to climate change impacts (Yung et al 2015; Takahashi, Mano, and Otsuka 2019), I found that farmers in Siskiyou were also implementing a range of long-term adaptive management practices and livelihood strategies in response to climate change impacts, which many expressed an intent to continue into the future, even after the drought or smoke abated. While farmers elsewhere have identi ed economic factors, like reduced costs and increased e ciency, as the primary motivation for adopting conservation (Burke and Running 2019) and climate mitigation practices (Davidson et al 2019), I found a deeper core set of motivations.…”

Developing leaders to tackle wicked problems at the nexus of food, energy, and water systems

“…Ranchers' decisions about drought adaptation are influenced by both the specific biophysical changes occurring on their rangelands as well as social and economic processes, including commodity prices, trade policy, government drought relief programs, family finances, risk perception, available technology, and social norms. In some cases, experiences with past drought, skepticism about climate projection, risk aversion, and social norms interact in ways that reduce investments in long-term adaptation (Yung et al, 2015). Understanding drought adaptation on rangelands requires examining the ways that biophysical, economic, and social processes interact across multiple scales to both enable and constrain decisions about drought adaptation, which can be facilitated by asking the following questions: How do past ecosystem responses to drought influence the assumptions that producers make about future change?…”