Wyoming residents are feeling the heat, and they’re more concerned than ever about what it means, particularly for water — a scarce commodity in the arid state.
The state is historically among the most skeptical in the nation when it comes to embracing climate change, but a new University of Wyoming survey reveals that attitudes are changing even with an economy heavily reliant on fossil fuel extraction.
The vast majority of residents, 86%, “believe that climate change is happening,” according to the Wyoming Survey on Climate, Water, and People. Though they’re split on the reasons for it, with 47% believing it’s natural and 39% acknowledging humans are the cause, the survey helps confirm that Wyomingites are increasingly concerned. Back in 2014, for example, just 55% of Equality State residents believed climate change was happening, according to the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.
“That’s a huge change in 10 years,” said Kristen Landreville, lead author of the survey. Despite being split on the cause, “there is concern,” she added. “There is worry and there is a desire for action.”
Water concerns
It’s difficult to determine exactly why more Wyomingites are acknowledging climate change these days, Landreville said. Though the topic is constantly in the news, it likely has more to do with personal observations and local issues — particularly when it comes to water and past experiences with drought.
In fact, the survey purposely led with questions about water before asking about climate, Landreville said. Whether it’s those in agriculture who rely on water or recreationalists who fish and boat, people notice variations in Wyoming’s seasonal pulse of water, which has been changing.
The survey found that 82% of respondents agreed that “Wyoming is at risk of changing water resources,” and 75% believe “it is wise and necessary to adapt to these water changes.”
It also showed broad support for various water conservation measures, including water reuse, voluntary water conservation in agriculture and a close look at industrial use. Respondents also said they trust their neighbors in agriculture more than industry officials when it comes to a clear-eyed view of Wyoming’s water risks, according to Landreville.
“Only 7% of our respondents trusted industry to tell them the truth about what’s going on with water in the state,” she said. “What’s interesting is that Wyoming ranchers and farmers were the second most-trusted group.”
Feeling alone, but not actually alone
Perhaps the most exciting results of the survey — at least for a social and communication researcher like Landreville, she admitted — is that Wyomingites vastly underestimate how much they agree on their growing climate-related water concerns, as well as a desire to do something about it.
Of the 81% who want their communities to plan for climate-related water changes, fewer than half believe their neighbors feel the same way, according to the survey.
That massive disconnect, Landreville said, can drive a “spiral of silence” that leads to inaction and less pressure on elected officials to implement solutions. However, knowing there’s more agreement than residents previously realized is a huge opportunity to spur action at the local and state levels, she added.
“There’s more support [than understood] for creating community response plans,” Landreville said. “There’s more support for addressing water changes than Wyoming residents think. An implication of these findings, I think, is that it’s really important to share with people, ‘You know what? You’re not that different than your own community.'”
The survey, conducted by the University of Wyoming’s Center for Rural Resilience and Innovation, was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. You can view an interactive report on the survey here and read the full report here.
The Center for Rural Resilience and Innovation will be conducting more focus groups and community discussions around these issues in the near future, Landreville said.
It really doesn’t matter whether people believe climate change is human-caused or not. Even if climate change is caused by humans, it’s probably too late to do anything about it anyway. What is important now is spending time developing strategies that enable us to adapt to the changes and survive.
Regardless what is causing it the planet earth is warming up. Water will be a very valuable commodity, unless you live in a coastal community where salt water will be a plentiful curse. Fresh water conservation is a starting point but it’s not the total answer.
We have lived here 21 years now. If you check the daily temperatures against the “10 year moving average” locally we are running considerable higher than the global average. Unfortunately the government is removing our access to that data.
These results need to be shared far and wide so that more people will feel free to raise their voices about mitigating the impacts of climate change. Ten years ago would have been great, but addressing the issue together now is far better than continuing to ignore it. Thanks, wyofile, for publishing this!
Have there been previous warming/climate change periods in the Holocene?
Yes, but those were not caused by humans and was largely local and regional. Those were driven by volcanic activity and changing ocean currents. Science has ruled out everything else for the current cause of heating except humans and increasing CO2 levels.
State needs to invest in cleaning up oil feild water and using it. It can be done. The entire industry would benefit from that as well.
Yet, instead of cleaning up production water, our state EPA approves pumping it into deep aquifers that will become vital for municipalities as the climate becomes even hotter and dryer. These aquifers are accessible even with todays technologies and the future will make them even more so.
A survey of what people believe. Physics is not religion.
The climate will forever be changing. Our planet is a functional system. Water is a concern and has been as we adding demand. Best we address that and stop trying to address something we cannot effect.
“Our planet is a functional system”. What does that mean? Empty meaningless rhetoric. Overwhelming data and an overwhelming consensus of the world’s climate experts have demonstrated that anthropogenic climate change is real, is happening, and will be catastrophic to life on Earth if we do not take significant mitigating actions. Now. We were making some progress (we _can_ effect meaningful changes if we have the political will and public support). Instead, we’ve again reversed course with this latest Big BAD Bill.
It is not rhetoric. The planet is a series of systems that interact with each other. A cold front is a weather system. The climate will in fact always change. Sometimes slowly and sometimes rapidly. We are warming. We are not anywhere close to as warm as its ever been. The earth also has more humans now than ever. It would be wise to consider how to best deal with the water issue now. That is the real environmental issue. Science is not a religion. Warming is not a science issue, it is an engineering issue.
You understand that the “water issue” (growing scarcity in some locales, increasing incidence and severity of floods in other locales) is just a symptom, and not the root cause of our problems, right? Treating symptoms is, at best, a temporary fix. And the symptoms are only going to get worse.