Report: Extension Climate & Extreme Weather Programming

financial benefit or the resilience benefit, that is extremely challenging for me to do. So we have no quantitative data in that sense ... we do have lots of qualitative, anecdotal accounts .” (R09)

External Constraints

Societal & Clientele Lack of Interest or Urgency to Act Among Extension partners, current and prospective clientele, and the general public as a whole, interviewees felt that there is a broad lack of interest in, unified messaging on, and/or consensus about the seriousness of C/EW challenges. This is coupled with a commensurate lack of urgency to act with climate mitigation and adaptation solutions. Several respondents expressed extreme concern about the ramifications of inaction, insufficient response, and/or deferred action to confront what so many experts characterize as an existential threat to humanity. ● “When I came here [years ago], I did my best to go to any agriculture event I could because the focus then was on ‘climate - smart agriculture’. I would set up a table with a display and information, and farmers would walk right by me. This was at a [state] event that probably has about 500 of the top farmers [in the state] and the Governor’s staff… it’s a huge event, and no one really wanted to talk about it .” (R11) ● “There are a lot of people who want to be able to do what they want on their property and they’re not really interested in any regulations… Some folks might have that community sense that we need to protect the [resource] for everyone and some people don’t… It’s hard to co me up with different ideas for programming if people aren’t interested and aren’t going to show up. ” (R02)

“ For most people, they just have enough problems in their life without thinking about ‘well, what are we going to do about climate change?’ I don’t think I’ve broken past any ‘early adopters’ as part of my clientele. I don’t think I’ve gotten anywhere near the mid tier of educating people.” (R07)

“ Sometimes our work with communities really has traction and continues and works well and other times, we have the meeting, we go over the maps, and it doesn't have traction. And I think there's just so many factors, like timing. Are they [communities with whom we work] ready to take on a specific action? Also the level of risk or perceived risk. Sometimes the maps of specific climate impacts like sea level rise, a community

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