Place attachment and perception of climate change as a threat in rural and urban areas.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is a global threat to ecosystems and the people that depend on them. However, the perceived threat of climate change may vary spatially. Previous research suggests that inhabitants in rural areas show higher levels of place attachment (associating meaning with a specific place) than urbanites, possibly because rural people depend more directly on their local environment. This can shape perceptions and behaviours, such as enhanced willingness to engage in landscape preservation. Here we ask if it also makes rural people perceive climate change as a greater threat, using a representative sample of 1,071 survey respondents from across the United Kingdom (UK) to provide first-order insights. We found that, whilst indicators of place attachment were indeed more frequent in rural

SUBMITTER: Tenbrink T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10482299 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature