Agricultural Producers’ Views of Climate Change in the Canadian Prairies: Implications for Adaptation and Environmental Practices

Abstract

Farmers and ranchers in the Canadian Prairies are at risk of climate extremes, yet climate change remains a divisive topic. This paper draws on qualitative interviews with 33 agricultural producers who discussed climate change during a larger project on adaptation to climate extremes. We inductively analyzed climate change beliefs and perceptions into five themes. Common themes included uncertainty and attribution skepticism (i.e., attribution of climate change to natural cycles only). Past experience and personal observation strongly shaped climate beliefs, but in diverse ways. We examine links between producers’ climate change views and their adaptive and mitigative practices. Climate change belief did not appear to influence farmers’ environmental practices, which are motivated by economic and environmental factors. Although past experience encourages adaptation, beliefs about natural climate cycles—and the limitations of even intergenerational memory of past extremes—may ultimately reduce preparedness for the unexpected “extreme extremes” of the future.