Public perception of climate change and its impact on natural disasters - Percepcija javnosti o klimatskim promenama i njihovom uticaju na prirodne katastrofe

 The aim of the research is the examination of the factors influencing the public perception of climate change and its impact on natural disasters. This paper presents the results of quantitative research regarding tested the central hypothesis of which education is predicting variable of public perception of climate change and its impact on natural disasters. A multivariate regression analysis was used, identifying the extent to total scores of the main dependent variables (perception of vulnerability to climate change, perception of the climate change impact on natural disaster, knowledge and fear scores) were associated with five demographic and socio-economic variables: gender, age, marital status, education level, and employment status. A series of 208 face-to-face interviews were conducted during the beginning of 2020 on the central squares in selected cities in Serbia, Belgrade (76.92%) and Sremska Mitrovica (23.08%). The results showed that education level was the most effective predictor of the mentioned research variables. Besides, employment status has been found to affect perceptions of vulnerability, while age affects perceptions of climate change. Based on the obtained results, policies and strategies to improve people's awareness of climate change must take into account a comprehensive understanding of behavioral dispositions. Cilj istraživanja predstavlja ispitivanje faktora koji utiču na percepciju javnosti o klimatskim promenama i njihovom uticaju na prirodne katastrofe. Ovaj rad predstavlja rezultate kvantitativnog istraživanja u kojem se ispituje centralna hipoteza prema kojoj je edukacija glavna prediktorska promenljiva percepcije javnosti o klimatskim promenama i njihovom uticaju na prirodne katastrofe. Korišćena je višestruka regresiona analiza koja je identifikovala opseg ukupnih rezultata glavnih zavisnih promenljivih (percepcija ugroženosti na klimatske promene, percepcija uticaja klimatskih promena na prirodne katastrofe, rezultati znanja i straha) koje su povezane sa pet demografskih i socijalno-ekonomskih promenljiva: pol, starost, bračni status, nivo obrazovanja i radni status. Serija od 208 intervjua licem u lice obavljena je tokom početka 2020. godine na centralnim trgovima u odabranim gradovima u Srbiji, Beogradu (76,92%) i Sremskoj Mitrovici (23,08%). Rezultati su pokazali da je nivo obrazovanja najefikasniji prediktor pomenutih istraživačkih varijabli. Pored toga, utvrđeno je da radni status utiče na percepciju ranjivosti, dok starost utiče na percepciju klimatskih promena. Na osnovu dobijenih rezultata, politike i strategije za poboljšanje svesti ljudi o klimatskim promenama moraju uzeti u obzir sveobuhvatno razumevanje raspoloženja u ponašanju.

Cvetković, V., & Grbić, L. (2021). Public perception of climate change and its impact on natural disasters. Journal of the Geographical Institute Jovan Cvijic.

Link - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347440464_Public_perception_of_climate_change_and_its_impact_on_natural_disasters_-_Percepcija_javnosti_o_klimatskim_promenama_i_njihovom_uticaju_na_prirodne_katastrofe