Puerto Rican Farmers' Psychological Awareness of Climate Change, and Adaptation Perceptions after Hurricane Maria

Abstract

Strengthening farmers’ adaptive capacity is important for decreasing their vulnerability to natural hazards in this changing climate, and for safeguarding local food systems. One key step in strengthening adaptive capacity is understanding the relationship between farmers’ experience with natural hazards and their perceptions of climate change, and its role in farmers’ decision making around climate change adaptation. Here we explore Puerto Rican farmers’ psychological distance of climate change after experiencing category 4 Hurricane Maria, in order to intersect the roles of experience, perceptions, and motivation for farmers’ decision-making around climate change adaptation. Farmers throughout Puerto Rico were surveyed by Extension Services’ agents (n = 405, 87% response rate) in 2018, eight months after Hurricane Maria. A structural equation model was used to evaluate how reported experience with past events and direct damages by Hurricane Maria related to farmers’ psychological distance of climate change, and the association of these variables to farmers’ motivation to adapt to climate change. We found that farmers psychological distance of climate change is both near and far, since they show a broad awareness to climate change’s impacts both locally and globally in different dimensions (temporal, geographical, and social). Reported experience and direct damages by the hurricane were not linked to their psychological distance of climate change, and these did not relate to their motivation to adapt. These results suggest that using extreme events as a driver for climate belief and action may no longer be relevant, especially in a context where there is a high level of climate change belief and continued threat of extreme events. Thus, broadening analysis beyond individual perceptions as drivers of climate adaptation to how structural dynamics are linked to adaptive capacity could provide better understanding. This study is among the first to study the role of climate change experience and perceptions on farmers’ climate change adaption after an extreme weather event in an island-archipelago setting.

A Closer Look at Indirect Causes of Death After Hurricane Maria Using a Semiparametric Model

“…It is estimated that the effects of the hurricane caused monetary damages in Puerto Rico for more than the US $82 billion (Álvarez Febles and Félix, 2020). Also, Maria destroyed around 80% of the value of the island’s crops, representing a loss of $780 million in agricultural yield (Rodríguez Cruz and Niles, 2018).…”

A Closer Look at Indirect Causes of Death After Hurricane Maria Using a Semiparametric Model

“…5 Also, Maria destroyed around 80% of the value of the island's crops, representing a loss of $780 million in agricultural yield. 6 Indirect causes of death have been recognized as an important consequence of national emergencies. For example, damage to the transportation network during an earthquake can affect access to medicine and health services generating serious or even fatal repercussions for affected people.…”