Recently the research on climate change has been a priority for many scientific and political institutions, and so has been the study of public perceptions of climate change. Within this presentation we draw upon the knowledge base of natural and social sciences in order to examine the factors explaining social perceptions of the threats posed by climate change. Social Sciences have shown that fear and risk are not always linked as fear is a social construction mediated by diverse factors. Some authors point out that for a risk to be feared both salience and familiarity are needed (Sunstein, 2006). A multitude of studies of natural sciences describe the salience of climate change (IPCC, 2007). Familiarity of the public with such an abstract problem as climate change is difficult; besides, the particular effects of climate change are manifold and will greatly vary depending on a country.
The European Environmental Agency has completed a very comprehensive study that shows different risks associated to climate change in all European biogeographic regions (EEA, 2017). We believe that the current experience of those risks may trigger climate change concern in those countries. A person that already experiences heavy floods in his/her country every year will likely fear an increase of floods caused by climate change in the longer run (hypothesis partially approved by Whitmarsh, 2008). We also consider level of education as a mediating factor to establish the connection between those particular problems and climate change (McCright, Dunlap and Marquart-Pyatt, 2016). We use the Eurobarometer 83.4 on climate change (2015). Employing multilevel logistic regressions, we find that the direct experience has strongest explanatory value (when it comes to explaining climate change concern).
The research is part of a project “Public Perceptions of Climate Change: Lithuanian case in a European Comparative Perspective”, funded by a grant (No. S-MIP‐17-126/SV3-0511) from the Research Council of Lithuania, duration 2017-2020.