Influence of Religion, Culture and Education on Perception of Climate Change, and its Implications

Abstract

This study aims to quantitatively find the influence of religion, culture and education on the perception of climate change, and its implications. A survey was carried out, with students of a college and a university in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and a university in Kiribati answering a questionnaire. It emerged that education has more influence than religion or culture on people’s perceptions of climate change and its implications, both in the RMI and Kiribati. It is interesting because the two countries are not homogeneous in terms of history, culture and religion. Another surprising finding was that seemingly contradictory ideas (e.g., no flooding in the future as stated in the Bible, compared with the perceived sea level rise) exist in the minds of the majority of the respondents, both in RMI and Kiribati. Having conflicting ideas in one’s mind may delay one taking action to cope with climate change and its implications.