Climate change evaluations by inhabitants of the high-mountain regions of Russia: risks and security issues

Abstract

The high-mountain areas of Russia including areas of the Altai Republic are characterized by intense climate change, the consequences of which in the long term will have a tangible impact on their socio-economic development, the level of security and well-being of the population. The article presents the results of sociological surveys of the population in six settlements of Kosh-Agachsky and Ulagansky districts of the Altai Republic, located near the centers of dangerous exogenous processes (n = 403), which allowed to describe the perception of climate threats and to articulate the risks that are of greater concern to residents and affect the preservation of their traditional way of life and ways of doing business.