https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038516648547">
 

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Abstract

Research has led to broad agreement among scientists that anthropogenic climate change is happening now and likely to worsen. In contrast to scientific agreement, US public views remain deeply divided, largely along ideological lines. Science communication has been neutralised in some arenas by intense counter-messaging, but as adverse climate impacts become manifest they might intervene more persuasively in local perceptions. We look for evidence of this occurring with regard to realities and perceptions of flooding in the northeastern US state of New Hampshire. Although precipitation and flood damage have increased, with ample news coverage, most residents do not see a trend. Nor do perceptions about past and future local flooding correlate with regional impacts or vulnerability. Instead, such perceptions follow ideological patterns resembling those of global climate change. That information about the physical world can be substantially filtered by ideology is a common finding from sociological environment/society research.

Department

Sociology; New Hampshire EPSCoR

Publication Date

10-4-2016

Journal Title

Sociology

Publisher

Sage

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038516648547

Document Type

Article

Rights

© The Author(s) 2016

Comments

Hamilton, L.C., C.P. Wake, J. Hartter, T.G. Safford & A. Puchlopek. 2016. “Flood realities,perceptions, and the depth of divisions on climate.” Sociology 50:913–933. © The Author(s) 2016. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038516648547

Included in

Sociology Commons

Share

COinS