The Impact of Climate Change on Emotions: A Comparative Study of Affected and Non-Affected Provinces in Iran
Background: Climatic emotions can be acute or long-term responses to a rapidly changing environment. They reflect a person's alignment and attachment to people, places, and ecological processes that sustain human and non-human life.
Methods: This research was conducted to compare the climate change emotions of the population in affected and non-affected provinces. The design of the current research was causal-comparative (post facto). The statistical population of the present study was all residents of 10 provinces (five provinces involved with climate change and five normal provinces) in 2024 (provinces involved with climate change: Khuzestan, Hormozgan, Ilam, Kerman, Sistan, and Baluchistan; normal provinces: West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Lorestan, Mazandaran, Gilan). The sampling method in the present study was available. At least 200 people were considered in each province. Finally, 1379 questionnaires were suitable for scoring. The climate change emotions questionnaire (Marzak et al., 2023) was used to collect information. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics, including Student's t-test and SPSS-24 software.
Results: The results showed a significant difference in the variables of anger, passion, anxiety, sadness, and the total score of emotions related to climate change between the two provinces with climate change and the normal group (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Therefore, it can be said that in the provinces less involved in climate change, including West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Lorestan, Mazandaran, and Gilan, the scores of people with climate change emotions are higher than the other group.
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