Global warming believers more likely to prepare for deadly weather

Hurrican Keith strikes Belize. Image by madmack66 via Flickr

People who believe in global warming are more likely to prepare adequately for harsh weather events, at least in Belize.

So there you go: a practical reason to believe in global warming that relies on neither prediction nor faith. Researchers studied the way families in Belize respond to climate-related events, such as more intense hurricanes and prolonged drought. They found that families who believe climate change is happening are more likely to prepare adequately when forecasters warn them about approaching storms.

Doesn’t it seem like natural selection will eventually weed out global warming deniers? Unless global warming weeds us all out first.

The finding comes from research led by Baylor University anthropologist Sara Alexander and environmental science Professor Susan Stonich at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The study, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is just complete, but Baylor previewed some of its findings yesterday. The researchers looked at differences between “vulnerable” and “secure” families.

“This study looks into the interaction of knowledge, awareness and action as it relates to the weather,” said Alexander, associate professor and chair of the department of anthropology, forensic science and archaeology at Baylor. “Overall, we found vulnerable households also responded to weather-related events, as did more secure households, they just did it in different ways.”

Some of those different ways are not surprising, but the research highlights vulnerabilities worth remembering:

• Vulnerable and more secure households differ in coping strategies when dealing with weather-related events. Those households that are considered vulnerable and not materialistic more often turn to their family, friends and faith for emotional support, but not to financially-based responses. Those households who have higher levels of security are more likely to use their savings or sell their assets to engage in a financially based response by repairing and rebuilding, many times finding emotional support through this work.

• Women with low levels of education reported low incidences of feeling empowered in making decisions about how to cope with a major weather event.

• Since women with a lower education level coped less well with climate stressors, they feel stress around weather changes more so than women with higher levels of education who also are making decisions.

• Because tourism-based jobs are more vulnerable to the weather, even those with higher levels of education who are working in tourism are vulnerable to climate stressors.

• Crime and self-reported alcohol and drug abuse increased in the coastal communities after major weather events like Hurricane Dean in 2007 and Tropical Storm Arthur in 2008.

Needless to say, Alexander and Stonich believe humans are causing global warming: “Over the last 150 years, data shows surface temperatures have increased and the associated impacts on biological and physical systems have become more evident. Some of the more notable changes that have gradually occurred are sea level rise, shifts in climatic zones, changes in precipitation patterns and increases in frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events like droughts, floods and storms.”