Murni Greenhill

Assessing climate change beliefs: Response effects of question wording and response alternatives

To date, there is no ‘gold standard’ on how to best measure public climate change beliefs. We report a study (N = 897) testing four measures of climate change causation beliefs, drawn from four sources: the CSIRO, Griffith University, the Gallup poll, and the Newspoll. We found that question wording influences the outcome of beliefs reported. Questions that did not allow respondents to choose the option of believing in an equal mix of natural and anthropogenic climate change obtained different results to those that included the option. Age and belief groups were found to be important predictors of how consistent people were in reporting their beliefs. Response consistency gave some support to past findings suggesting climate change beliefs reflect something deeper in the individual belief system. Each belief question was assessed against five criterion variables commonly used in climate change literature. Implications for future studies are discussed.

West Kalimantan industrial plantation scheme: twenty years on

Abstract Successful company-community partnerships are important for Indonesia’s aspirations to contribute to improving rural livelihoods through forestry. This study aimed to assess the livelihood impacts of a company-community forestry partnership that has now been operating for 20 years in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Using the sustainable livelihoods framework, we asked smallholder farmers about their perceptions of changes in employment opportunities, poverty reduction, community well-being, resilience, and environmental quality, since the establishment of the timber plantation scheme. Over 2 phases of face-to-face interviews, about 40% of respondents indicated that they had to live without essentials such as food, housing, or clothing in the 12 months preceding the study, due to lack of money. Being in a partnership with the company did not reduce the likelihood of respondents having to live without basic essentials. All respondents (including those not in partnerships) perceived small but statistically significant improvements to their household income, ability to access food, and overall household vulnerability since the beginning of the company plantation scheme. However, there was a high level of dissatisfaction amongst smallholder farmers who were in the partnership. The partnership arrangements need urgent revision to increase community satisfaction to ensure the partnership remains viable into the future.

The influence of coping appraisals on the adoption of decentralised water systems in Australia

Abstract In Australia, water scarcity has resulted in the need for re-evaluating demand management policies, as well as the identification of alternative water supplies. Specifically, water utilities have been focusing on increasing the adoption of household level decentralised water systems (DWS). While such engineering solutions may be effective, understanding the factors which influence adoption is crucial for widespread uptake. Protection Motivation (PM) theory was used to assess DWS adoption in a sample of 295 homeowners across South East Queensland, Australia. Results provided good support for the application of PM theory to understanding whether people cope adaptively to water shortage threats. The model’s hypothesised link between adaptive coping and behavioural intention was also supported, suggesting PM theory can be used to understand people’s intention to adopt DWS in the context of the drought. The predictive ability of the PM model improved significantly when demographic variables – age and perceived water – use were included.