Does the perception of climate change vary with the socio-demographic dimensions? A study on vulnerable populations in Bangladesh

This study tried to explore the perception of climate change by considering the socio-demographic dimensions of vulnerable populations in Bangladesh. This study included 158 respondents from an extremely flood affected area of Sylhet by using multistage sampling. This study used both quantitative and qualitative method to analyze data. Using several statistical tools and doing paraphrased translation of key information, this study find that the perception of climate change varies depending on the different socio-demographic dimensions such as gender, marital status, religion and age. Findings also show that the concern about climate change and the reasons for it as well as the prospective solutions and pathways to reduce its impacts are present in different socio-demographic dimensions. This study particularly reveals that the majority of the populations consider the reason of climate change from sinful activities of the individuals and wish of God. Other, however, considers that deforestation and river dredging are the reasons of climate change. And most people perceive that increasing education on the environment, changing human behavior and community level participation, can lead to reduce the adverse situations of climate change in developing countries like Bangladesh.