just don’t seem to
about a warning that a major storm is
coming their way rather than do
everything in the power to avoid loss of
their home or their lives they seem to
simply just ignore the information do
they think that there’s no point to
doing anything because the storm will
overpower them or do they think that
it’s their duty to endure the hazard in
order to demonstrate commitment or faith
to some higher power or maybe they think
that someone or something else will save
them it’s not revolutionary to say that
the risks of humans from climate change
and natural hazards depends on how
sensitive and expose we are to them it
may be intuitive to recognize that
factors such as the kind of job you have
for instance are you a Fisher at the
coast where you might be exposed to
tsunamis storms and typhoons or do you
work in an office in the city when your
experience of such events is probably
limited to reading about them on your
computer screens of course financial
status also has an influence if you can
afford insurance you’re probably more
likely to leave your home behind the
event of a major flood rather than risk
your life to save your belongings
however if your possessions are your
insurance your only source of valuables
you may be willing to risk drowning in
order to save them but there is another
dimension of life that implements how we
experience climate change and natural
hazards which may not be so obvious
namely culture culture refers to things
such as art traditions knowledge
folklore religion and material
possessions that have been passed from
generation to generation and which
helped to create the identity of groups
and people culture influences how we see
the world it change how we interpret
what’s going on around us
and it helps us explain and justify
things challenges and dangers that we
don’t understand you’ve probably heard
of the Vietnamese myth of something the
spirit of the mountains and treating the
spirit of the Seas who both sought to
marry the same beautiful princess their
fight erupted into stormy waters which
something’s successfully averted by
moving the mountains higher but in his
frustration with defeat twitting tries
again each year to flood the lands and
this apparent that explains the monsoons
in Vietnam so it follows that culture
plays an important role in defining how
we we think about and react to climate
change and natural hazards this helps
explain why some people deny the
existence of a threat why they don’t
take action to avoid death or loss of
belongings and why some people behave in
ways that actually make the hazard worse
why because people don’t consider this
hazard which worries scientists and
governments to be a dangerous event
instead it may just be the manifestation
of the power of some God or spirit or
other important force religious belief
is a particularly important driver of
perceptions and behavior both in harmful
and helpful ways and also non religious
beliefs can have the same effect so in
this talk I focus on belief as an
expression of culture so what I’ve
discussed so far is that belief can
interact with climate change and natural
hazards in two ways first but these can
make people think or do things that make
them more likely to be affected by a
hazard second people may not take a
threat seriously because their beliefs
lead them to consider a risk not to be a
risk let me give you an example of how
people’s beliefs influence a reaction to
risk in El Salvador which is a small
country in Central America far away from
here
the Catholic Church was an important
supporter of the rebel communities
during the civil war in the 1980s
another Christian denomination was
introduced by missionaries who wanted to
the key ingredients that attracted those
who were funding the missionaries were
fatalism and individualism both of which
discouraged taking action to change
one’s social situation ironically this
new religion which attracted many who
felt helpless in the face of such a
bloody crisis also continued to attract
many who felt helpless in the face of
devastating disasters such as hurricane
Mitch which occurred in 1998 this meant
that when I was in the fields for my PhD
asking questions about what people did
to avoid the impact of such extreme
events there were two types of responses
some people spoke about all the
different measures that you could take
to prevent the river from flooding but
others said that there is nothing that
could be done because the hurricane was
sent by God to test their faith and if
they suffered now they would be better
off in their after lives while both
groups generally said that God was
responsible for the hurricane they had
two completely different attitudes about
what to do about them which I later
learned was the consequence of belonging
to two different religious groups so the
Catholics were more proactive and were
empowered by their beliefs but those who
belonged to the more fatalistic religion
were essentially disempowered by their
beliefs but also the loss of traditional
knowledge and belief can be a driver of
risk the ancestors of Vanuatu’s Torres
Island which is in the South Pacific
were well aware of the risk posed by
tsunamis and coastal sea surges so they
built their villages on a coral platform
one
meters high yet the people who are
living in towards islands now are
considered to be some of the most at
risk from sea level rise caused by
climate change because they’re living at
the coast in this photo you can see how
they’re protesting the coastal erosion
that’s affecting their lives so what
happened to this ancient wisdom that
taught that it was better to live away
from the coast and why did they come
down from their platform the answer lies
in the black magic which the ancestors
believed was actually the reason for the
hazards migration towards the ocean took
place as the islands were being
converted to Christianity which resulted
consequently it was no longer considered
that there was anything responsible for
the tsunamis and coastal hazards and the
risks they pose is no longer feared you
can also find examples in wealthier
countries for 350 years locals in the
Swiss Alps had been praying for the
retreat of a glacier that was
continuously causing floods and
avalanches but with climate change the
glacier began to retreat very rapidly
and locals discovered that it was
affecting the availability of drinking
water food for livestock and energy they
realized that the prey or may have been
working too well so in 2009 they asked
the Vatican to change the 350 year-old
prayer to request that it instead not
retreat so what we learn from these
examples which are just a few of the
many many from around the world is that
beliefs can be both helpful and harmful
but there are a few tricky issues if our
goal is to reduce the risk posed like
climate change and natural hazards the
first is us versus them whose reality
counts which reality is mine
is the world in which black magic exists
an alternative reality and if so
alternative to what how can we work with
people’s risk perceptions and practices
without suggesting that one version of
reality is superior to another even when
we know that some beliefs potentially or
actually our barrier to reducing risk
some anthropologist suggests that there
is no such thing as a universal right
way of being human in fact a right way
is almost always our way and our way in
one society almost never corresponds
with our way in another society I am
speaking to you from the perspective of
somebody whose goal is to reduce the
impacts of climate change and natural
hazards on people’s lives that’s my
right way also we have to ask how
important our beliefs really can we
measure them their beliefs be a
predictor of behavior people may say one
thing because of social pressures around
them but they may not actually believe
what they say also finally the point
that we need to wonder can beliefs be
integrated into mainstream work to
reduce disaster and climate change risk
or will that be too controversial a
touch on too many taboo issues the
purpose of this field of work is not to
criticize religious or other beliefs but
it’s easy to understand how this may
help maybe perceive this way because
many of the stories from the field to
some extent characterize beliefs as
harmful the issue of how culture
interacts with our experience of climate
change and natural hazards is clearly
not simple and provokes strong emotions
from many there’s there’s no way that we
can be
neutral in our exploration of this topic
just by saying that we want to reduce
risk we’re already putting on looking
through the world through our set of
glasses at the same time problems are
likely to rise if those who are
designing and implementing risk
reduction measures don’t recognize the
challenging and important role played by
culture so even if we consider that
people’s beliefs are irrational and a
barrier for effective Risk Reduction we
can’t simply wish that they’ll go away we have to work with them