Climate Change Opinion Survey Among Community Opinion Leaders in Haliburton County

Climate Change Opinion Survey Among Community Opinion Leaders in Haliburton County

April Blumberg and Alexander Salton

Host Organizations: Environment Haliburton, Planet Haliburton, and Abbey Gardens

Host Supervisors: Heather Ross, Terry Moore, Heather Reid

Hayley Goodchild, International Development Studies

TP-4761

2018

Haliburton county

Environmental Studies
Climate Change

The purpose of this research was to assess the interests and capacity of the local community for undertaking local climate change mitigation activities. To accomplish this, the researchers set out to identify opinion leaders in Haliburton County and interview them to develop an in-depth understanding of climate change in the County. Our primary goal was to understand the level of threat posed by climate change as perceived by opinion leaders in the Haliburton County community. Our second goal was to examine what level of community-led action these opinion leaders feel is necessary, and what they would be willing to support. Our final goal was to find out what the key barriers are to initiating and sustaining community-led action against climate change in Haliburton, and how these barriers might be overcome. These goals were based on the research questions posed initially by the hosts. This study was also guided by other formative questions, like a) What are “the key sectors of the community”? b) Who are “the opinion leaders” within each of those sectors? and c) Do the answers to the research questions vary significantly within or across sectors and, if so, why? This study yielded some interesting findings that have the potential to inform future research on the same or related topics. The common concerns cited by participants were adverse economic effects and flooding resulting from climate change. The most common barrier to community-led action was difficulties with outreach, and the most widely supported solution for overcoming barriers was collaborative community actions. This report will begin with a brief overview of Haliburton County and a review of the literature on climate change mitigation.