Evaluating How Media Portrayal Affects Rural Opinion on Climate Change Policy
A 2020 study found that 54% of surveyed rural citizens felt that climate change policy is important, as opposed to 69% of urban citizens(Diamond, Bonnie, and Rowe(2020) Yet, rural Americans stand to gain a lot from effective climate policy which in theory would lead to predictable weather conditions. Both harvesting and planting timetables are heavily influenced by rain, snow and frost cycles. Thus, having unpredictable weather cycles leads to agriculture becoming much more risky and difficult, as one ill-timed frost or rain could wipe out an entire crop. Agriculture is the backbone of rural America and without it, life in rural areas would disappear as agriculture is the center of rural economies. Many rural Americans are also very involved in fishing, hunting, gardening, and hiking, with all of these activities being driven by the environment. Effective climate change policy would stand to benefit these activities that are so ingrained into the rural lifestyle.