Personal experience can differ between individuals as a function of their location, history, and/or socio-economic circumstances (Figner and Weber, 2011). Greater familiarity with climate risks, unless accompanied by alarming negative consequences, could actually lead to a reduction rather than an increase in the perceptions of its riskiness (Kloeckner, 2011). On the other hand, people’s experience can make climate a more salient issue. For example, changes in the timing and extent of freezing and melting (and associated effects on sea ice, flora, and fauna) have been experienced since the 1990s in the American and Canadian Arctic and especially indigenous communities (Laidler, 2006), leading to increased concern with climate change because traditional prediction mechanisms no longer can explain these phenomena (Turner and Clifton, 2009).

People’s expectations of change (or stability) in climate variables also affect their ability to detect trends in probabilistic environments. For instance, farmers in Illinois were asked to recall growing season temperature or precipitation statistics for seven preceding years. Farmers who believed that their region was affected by climate change recalled precipitation and temperature trends consistent with this expectation, whereas farmers who believed in a constant climate, recalled precipitations and temperatures consistent with that belief (Weber, 1997). Recognizing that beliefs shape perception and memory provides insight into why climate change expectations and concerns vary between segments of the US population with different political ideologies.

The evidence is mixed when we examine whether individuals learn from past experience with respect to investing in adaptation or mitigation measures that are likely to be cost-effective. Even after the devastating 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons in the United States, a large number of residents in high-risk areas had still not invested in relatively inexpensive loss-reduction measures, nor had they undertaken emergency preparedness measures (Goodnough, 2006).

Surveys conducted in Alaska and Florida, regions where residents have been exposed more regularly to physical evidence of climate change, show greater concern and willingness to take action (ACI, 2004; Leiserowitz and Broad, 2008; Mozumder et al., 2011).

Capítulo 2: Integrated Risk and Uncertainty Assessment of Climate

Change Response Policies, In: Climate Change 2014, p. 164, 165

De acordo com o texto acima, é CORRETO afirmar: