Little research has focused on the relationship between religion and climate change attitudes and behavior. Further, while there have been some studies examining the relationship between environmental attitudes and religion, most are focused on Christian denominations and secularism, and few have examined other religions such as Buddhism. Using an online survey of 1,927 Australians we examined links between membership of four religious groupings (Buddhists, Christian literalists and non-literalists, and Secularists) and climate change attitudes and behaviors. Differences were found across religious groups in terms of their belief in: (a) human induced climate change, (b) the level of consensus among scientists, (c) their own efficacy, and (d) the need for policy responses. We show, using ordinal regression, that religion explains these differences even after taking into account socio-demographic factors, knowledge and environmental attitude, including belief in man’s dominion over nature. Differences in attitude and behavior between these religious groups suggest the importance of engaging denominations to encourage change in attitudes and behavior among their members.

Background Being a zoonosis, the transmission of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is influenced by climatic, reservoir and occupational factors. This paper has quantified the incidence and potential risk factors of HFRS in Yingshang County, a low-lying epidemic focus of the disease in China. Methods Correlation and regression analyses were conducted among climatic variables, the density of mice, autumn crop production and annual incidence of HFRS during the autumn-winter seasons in the County over the period 1980–1996. Results Rainfall (r = –0.63, P = 0.009), the density of mice (r = 0.90, P = 0.000) and autumn crop production (r = 0.67, P = 0.01) were statistically correlated with the incidence of HFRS. Multiple regression analysis indicated that these factors are potential predictors for HFRS transmission. Conclusions Rainfall, the density of mice and autumn crop production could be used as predictors of HFRS transmission in low-lying epidemic foci.