Survey: Montana farmers and ranchers accept climate change as reality

If changes aren’t made, Montana’s temperatures are expected to rise 12 degrees over the next 30 years, which could turn Montana into a ghost town. "Coal is a public health menace." Nobel Peace Prize winner Prof. Steve Running said.

Montana farmers and ranchers know the climate is changing.

As evidence, Montana State University Adjunct Professor Timothy Seipel presented a survey Monday that showed 83.5 percent of farmers questioned see climate change as a problem.

Despite that acknowledgement, about 43 percent of 424 farmers and ranchers around Montana surveyed by members of the MSU’s Weed and Invasive Plant Ecology and Management Group did not believe climate change was caused by humans, Seipel said. The 36 percent who did believe human activities spurred on climate change were all likely to be more liberal. The more conservative a person in the survey was, the more likely they were to believe climate change wasn’t happening, despite what has been perceived by farmers across the state, Seipel said.

ASHLEY NERBOVIG [email protected]

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