Presentation short abstract

Everyday encounters with environmental change shape how individuals interpret and internalize climate change. In two coastal regions in India, lived experiences and local ecological and cultural contexts produced distinct climate perceptions, highlighting the need for place-based communication.

Presentation long abstract

Climate change is exerting profound and uneven impacts across the world, reshaping ecosystems and communities in various ways (IPCC, 2021; 2023), shaped by the geographic, ecological, and sociocultural contexts in which people live. Lived experience has emerged as a key factor influencing how communities interpret and internalise climate change, particularly in vulnerable regions (Myers et al., 2012). India’s coastal zones, exposed to sea-level rise, salinisation, and extreme weather events, offer a critical setting for examining these dynamics (Roy et al., 2023). This study investigates climate perceptions and knowledge in two socio-ecologically distinct coastal regions of southern India: Vypin, an island shaped by marine–wetland interactions, and Kozhikode, a mainland city with a long fishing tradition and significant historical depth.

Using a mixed-methods, we measured basic climate knowledge using a 4-item scale (Lee et al., 2015) and complemented this with open-ended questions to capture lived knowledge and perceptions. Quantitative results show that participants across both sites possess comparable levels of basic climate knowledge. However, qualitative findings reveal marked differences in lived experiences and interpretations of climate change. Reports of sea-level rise were higher in Vypin, consistent with its low-elevation geomorphology and greater exposure to tidal processes. Participants also described indirect impacts, including education disruptions due to heavy rainfall and heat-related challenges affecting labourers, and often attributed climate change to a mix of scientific, cultural, and religious explanations. Taken together, the findings demonstrate that climate perceptions are not shaped by physical exposure alone but emerge through culturally embedded and place-based ways of knowing.