EVERYONE WILL DIE ANYWAY’: MANAGING THE CULTURAL BIAS TOWARDS FATALISTIC THINKING ABOUT GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE THAI CONTEXT

Global climate change is one of the clearest manifestations of sustainability challenge in our time. There is certainly a complex relationship between the environmental, socio-cultural and ethical dimensions of this issue. Recently, extreme climate events have taken place in Thailand and the rest of the world. And even though, many dozens of studies have attempted to identify its impact, most people still remain reluctant to change their behaviour to deal with the problem. In Thailand, based on sociological perspectives, there is limited research evidence on the constraints and barriers to effective climate change action. Therefore, this paper aims at understanding cultural biases in the engagement with climate change among Thai local citizens. It drew upon the combination of mixed research methods from both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Questionnaires were distributed to the 253 selected households in Village 4 of the Nongbuasala sub district, Nakorn Ratchasima, Thailand. To this extent, results from the community survey indicate that cognitive dissonance, the feelings of helplessness and a cultural bias towards fatalism were the greatest obstacle to Thai citizens’ engaging with climate change as an issue (p ? 0.05). Potential solutions to overcome those perceived barriers were further discussed and recommended in a more sustainable manner.