Climate Change Denial Research Articles

The trashing of treasure: global biodiversity needs intensive care

Continuing population declines and extinctions across the earth’s biodiversity spectrum further undermine global ecological functioning and the security of human society. A comprehensive summary of the soon to be released Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Nexus Assessment report was published in December 2024. It stated that the current environmental, social and economic crises, reflected in mounting biodiversity loss, global climate change, growing water and food insecurity and risks to human health, are inseparable. It also warned that biodiversity levels have fallen between 2% and 6% per decade for the last 30 to 50 years. The level of harm being inflicted on nature is chilling for human society given that the report also stated that ~$58 trillion of global economic activity in 2023 was in sectors moderately to highly nature dependent. Setting aside the strong moral arguments for biodiversity conservation, this situation points to a mounting economic disaster. On a positive note, the report summary did list a suite of proposals for slowing this alarming level of biodiversity loss. However, separate from the IPBES Nexus report, factors that need to be addressed include the expectation of continuous economic growth, extreme concentration of global wealth and power; economic materialism; corporate tax avoidance; public and private sector corruption; the non-incorporation of environmental costs in generating Gross Domestic Product; and the flooding of the internet with misinformation, including climate change denial.

Climate Denialism on Social Media: Qualitative Analysis of Comments on Portuguese Newspaper Facebook Pages

Climate Denialism on Social Media: Qualitative Analysis of Comments on Portuguese Newspaper Facebook Pages

Climate dissociations: Trade associations, energy policy and climate communications in Europe

This paper focuses on how climate delay narratives populate the information environment of decision makers and regulators in EU policy making. We examine the communications of selected trade associations representing oil and gas extraction interests in Europe. Our analysis offers a novel synthesis, drawing on official data, industry and social media content, using mixed methods and informed by recent theorising on the advocacy activities of trade associations. The paper contextualises the lobbying and communication activities of oil and gas trade associations in Europe using publicly available data on lobbying (drawn from the EU transparency register) and the outputs of oil and gas trade associations (in trade, specialist and social media) to examine their preferred framings and promoted policy prescriptions for addressing climate and energy policy. We find that trade associations representing oil and gas interests in Europe spend millions of euros per annum producing and promoting policy ideas that seek to secure the long-term future of these industries. Wider climate science is rarely directly referenced or acknowledged in their public advocacy. We argue that the normalization of a new form of climate denial has emerged, based on unproven technologies and market mechanisms being pushed by powerful economic interests.

Compartmentalization by industry and government inhibits addressing climate denial

Compartmentalization by industry and government inhibits addressing climate denial

Climate change denial and ideology in Swedish online media: measuring ideology change using a computational approach

In this article, we examine the ideological trajectories of Facebook groups discussing climate change issues in Sweden, with a particular focus on groups expressing climate change denial beliefs. Using textual data spanning nine years, we construct an ideological space through text embeddings and apply trajectory analysis to map the ideological movement of these groups, exploring potential radicalisation or polarisation in users’ beliefs. Our findings suggest that most groups spreading climate change denial views occupy a shared ideological space, but are positioned on the periphery rather than at the centre. Additionally, we identify several distinct clusters of actors with similar movement patterns, some of which shift towards positions where climate change scepticism or increased problematisation of climate change issues is more prevalent. Finally, we discuss ways to interpret the dimensions of the resulting ideological space.

Preparing for climate migration and integration: a policy and research agenda

ABSTRACT In this paper I review recent research on climate migration, including estimates of the numbers of future migrants owing to climate change. I introduce a typology of climate migration including strategic, disaster, managed relocation and trapped populations. I draw on migration theory and findings on the integration of immigrants and refugees to suggest that a good way to manage and prepare for climate migration is for rich countries to allocate extra visas to poorer countries that are suffering the effects of climate migration, partly as reparations for climate injustice. These visas will allow strategic migrants to seed further migration by tying the countries together through social networks, and eventually will provide a co-ethnic community for disaster migrants and relocated communities. I also review research on refugees to suggest questions for researchers to answer on how best to integrate disaster migrants going forward. Finally, I review the growing intersection of climate denialism and anti-immigrant sentiment among right-wing movements. I suggest that planning for the successful integration of large numbers of migrants fleeing climate change should be a top priority not least because this success will help to preserve the social trust that is necessary for successful climate mitigation efforts.

Green high-performance work systems and green service innovation: moderated mediation model of decent work and climate change skepticism

Green high-performance work systems and green service innovation: moderated mediation model of decent work and climate change skepticism

Digital Climate Rhetoric and the Corrupted Scientist Archetype

ABSTRACT Social media platforms are prominent arenas for the circulation of climate change discourse, both scientific and skeptical. Watts Up With That (WUWT) is a blog and Facebook community that is a central node in the climate skeptical network. We collected WUWT Facebook posts using BirdSong Analytics and used iterative coding informed by theories of credibility to categorize rhetorical strategies that WUWT members use to undermine the credibility of climate science and climate scientists. Drawing on the corrupted scientist archetype and ad hominem argument, we propose adding the categories of power and religion to the archetype to represent how credibility arguments emerged in the context of digital climate skepticism. We conclude by reflecting on strategies to counter fallacious credibility arguments in digital spaces and to create contexts where participants critically and ethically evaluate scientific credibility.

The politics of climate denialism and the secondary denialism of economics

AbstractPrimary climate‐change denialism rejects the idea that global warming is driven by human activity. This belief system now appeals to about one‐third of Americans. Having been influenced by a 1990s Exxon campaign to sow doubt that fossil fuels are responsible for global warming, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be primary climate‐change deniers. But polls show that many US climate‐change accepters do not take it seriously enough to pay a nominal sum to prevent continued warming. This secondary denialism (accept the science, deny the urgency of action) may stem from the economic analysis of climate change. Discounting future damage and believing that economic growth will compensate for damage are two standard features of economic theory that justify treating climate issues with a degree of apathy—or at least as low priority. The work of Nobel‐Prize‐winning economist William Nordhaus provides almost as much cause for indifference among accepters as the climate denialists offer their followers. Scientists may view climate change with alarm, but policy‐makers mostly take their cues from economists. Nordhaus stated in a popular book in 2008 that his model demonstrates that 3.45°C warming is economically optimal. Not just tolerable, but optimal. His work is highly influential. Even though some economists have objected to the methods of economic analysis that understate the perils of climate change, their voices have had little influence on policy. Thus, seeming partisan differences about climate change have converged around go‐slow polices that manage climate issues as technical problems and that do not impose significant demands upon citizens or disrupt present economic arrangements.

Italians and Global Warming Skepticism: opinions and Ways of information

Scientists, policy-makers, entrepreneurs, and citizens are strongly concerned about the harmful consequences of climate change. Individual beliefs about social norms and economic and political orientations regarding trust and social relationships call into question values ​​such as care for the environment, autonomy, freedom of choice, and risk. Given the influence of the media on public perceptions, it is essential to consider how, with what means, and towards which issues citizens orient themselves to address this epochal phenomenon. Using quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis, the present study investigates the characteristics and reasons of the individuals who are skeptical of the evidence of global warming in Italy and how the Italians inform themselves about this issue. Quantitative analysis was performed on two representative samples of 1011 and 1030 individuals from Observa Science in Society in 2022 and 2023 through a structural equation model (SEM) to study the dimensions associated with climate change skepticism. Qualitative research on a panel of 93 Italians selected by gender, cultural level, and area of residence further highlighted the information channels, methods of use, and the main dimensions of interest in climate change. This robust mixed-mode methodology, which ensures the credibility and reliability of the study's findings, is a key strength of this research. Our results confirm that less trust in science and older age are associated with skepticism. Furthermore, traditional media are the primary means of information despite the growing importance of social relations - including social networks - in shaping opinions on the environment and climate change. The conclusions also reveal that experts influence the public, even if personal experience often mediates this effect. These findings have practical implications for understanding and addressing climate change skepticism in Italy, equipping researchers, policymakers, and individuals interested in this issue with the knowledge to make informed decisions and take effective action.

"No one talks about it": using emotional methodologies to overcome climate silence and inertia in Higher Education.

Higher Education (HE) is, at best, struggling to rise to the challenges of the climate and ecological crises (CEC) and, at worst, actively contributing to them by perpetuating particular ways of knowing, relating, and acting. Calls for HE to radically transform its activities in response to the polycrises abound, yet questions about how this will be achieved are often overlooked. This article proposes that a lack of capacity to express and share emotions about the CEC in universities is at the heart of their relative climate silence and inertia. We build a theoretical and experimental justification for the importance of climate emotions in HE, drawing on our collective experience of the Climate Lab project (2021-2023), a series of in-person and online workshops that brought together scientists, engineers, and artists. We analyse the roles of grief, vulnerability, and creativity in the conversations that occurred, and explore these exchanges as potential pathways out of socially organised climate denial in neoliberal institutions. By drawing on the emerging field of "emotional methodologies," we make a case for the importance of emotionally reflexive practices for overcoming an institutionalised disconnect between feeling and knowing, especially in Western-disciplinary contexts. We suggest that if staff and students are afforded opportunities to connect with their emotions about the CEC, then institutional transformation is (a) more likely to happen and be meaningfully sustained and (b) less likely to fall into the same problematic patterns of knowledge and action that perpetuate these crises. This profound, sometimes uncomfortable, emotionally reflexive work is situated in the wider context of glimpsing decolonial futures for universities, which is an integral step towards climate and ecological justice.

“I have not once heard the word sustainability since working here”: the underrecognized significance of work-related climate cultures

This article investigates how the work sphere shapes climate-cultural orientations by looking at the differences in climate-related discourses typically practiced at the workplace. These discourses are based on different normative convictions and result in various practical implications that together form employees’ collective climate-cultural orientations. The occupational context plays a decisive role, as most adults invest large shares of time into their work. Yet, thus far, relevant questions have remained substantially under-researched, as the bulk of social-scientific analyses still focuses on the consumption side of sustainability issues, although the potential impact within the work sphere is much higher than the level of efficacy that individual consumers can exert in the private sphere. Based on seven focus-group discussions with different occupational groups, I present diverging climate-related convictions, underlining that society is currently far from reaching an agreement on the consensus formulated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Fusing Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social space with Kari Marie Norgaard’s observations on the social organization of climate-change denial, the study initially considers the role of different group-specific forms of (not) knowing. Subsequently, it focuses on circulating efficacy expectations and (related) attributions of responsibility to different societal actors. I then show that climate denial is prevalent in all the work spheres I consider, albeit to different degrees, and that it can manifest explicitly or implicitly. Even occupational groups whose work is directly related to climate matters and whose socioeconomic situation would allow for more consistent climate action, report that inconsistent information and norms of individual freedom and flexibility prevent action, fostering implicit denial.

Ecofascism in the shadow of ‘patriotic ecology’: Nativism, economic greenwashing, and the evolution of far-right political ecology in France

Far-right environmental politics has changed dramatically in Europe in the last decade. Through an investigation of (far-)right rhetoric in the 2022 French elections we document the development of far-right political ecology in France and the rise of so-called ‘patriotic ecology’. We identify an intensifying focus on rootedness, racialised Malthusianism, and localism which seeks to cast ‘nomadic’ or ‘uprooted’ Global South refugees and migrants, minoritised communities, and liberal globalist political elites as the primary culprits of France’s environmental issues. We show how this discourse extends and develops prior forms of ecofascism, promising forms of statecraft that will intensify authoritarian border violence while ‘liberating’ the native stewards of rural France from ‘punitive’ forms of industrial decarbonisation. This reflects an evolving form of climate change denialism by stealth within far-right politics because it obscures the unequal, extractive economic causes of ecological crises and the need for systemic economic transformations.

The Promise of Resistance: A New Lens for Climate Change Adaptation Research and Practice

ABSTRACTOver the years, thousands of climate change adaptation projects have been implemented globally. While there has been substantial scholarship on the extent and nature of adaptation efforts, fewer studies have examined why and how adaptation projects are being resisted. An analysis of resistance to adaptation offers critical insights to scholars and practitioners by recognizing the contentious nature of adaptation pathways and highlighting alternative visions for adaptation. Drawing on 20 case studies identified through a systematic review of the literature, we identify nine insights for research and practice. First, there is little literature on resistance to adaptation, suggesting that it is being underreported. Second, resistance to adaptation is not an anomaly, spanning sectors, actors, and geographies. Third, resistance to adaptation initiatives often has little to do with climate change skepticism. Fourth, the modes and outcomes of resistance are creative and diverse. Fifth, the state plays a critical, but not uniform, role in adaptation and thus resistance. Sixth, formal participation mechanisms can accommodate, neutralize, or facilitate resistance to adaptation. Seventh, the diverse goals of resistance reflect the multiplicity of imagined adaptation futures. Eighth, resistance is generative of material outcomes and novel subjectivities. Ninth, resistance can be costly, fracturing, and ineffective. This review highlights the need to further investigate resistance to climate change adaptation, which should be seen as a site of political struggle between different conceptions of what adaptation is and should be. It also provides insights for identifying maladaptation and pathways toward more emancipative forms of adaptation.

Do You See What I See? Emotional Reaction to Visual Content in the Online Debate About Climate Change

ABSTRACT This paper explores the visual echo chamber effect in online climate change communication. We analyze communication by progressive actors and counteractors involved in the public debate about climate change on Facebook, to address the possibility that visual content can bridge ideologically diverse communities. Specifically, we investigate whether visual content depicting protest serves this purpose. The findings reveal a small amount of shared visual content. Interestingly, the emotional reactions to this content for the most part diverge significantly, suggesting that pre-existing attitudes, such as climate ideological position, influence interpretation. Contrary to our expectations, however, we do not observe visual content representing protest activity bridging the two groups. This work posits the possibility of a two-fold (de)polarization around visual content that both connects and divides, which contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the social dynamics that create and sustain the echo chamber effect observed in online climate change debates. KEY POLICY HIGHLIGHTS Even when taking into account visual communication, the online debate around climate change is characterized by the presence of echo chambers with only a small fraction of content that circulates among both climate activists and climate skeptics. In cases where the same visual content circulates within the two groups, the emotional reactions are often opposed, with reactions that are more defined by the pre-existing climate ideological alignment than with an actual engagement with the content.

How Science Upstaged Climate Denial

How Science Upstaged Climate Denial

빅데이터를 활용한 소셜미디어 기후변화 회의론 네트워크와 인플루언서 메시지 구조 분석: 사회연결망 분석과 의미연결망 분석의 적용

This study examines the information structure, message dissemination patterns, and influencer characteristics of social media users who spread climate change skepticism messages using social and semantic network analysis based on big data. Compared to a random network model, the climate skepticism network exhibits a small-world network structure, with messages led by climate change deniers spreading easily and quickly. The skepticism network is formed by a few large communities and a majority of smaller ones, with users tending to communicate strongly within their communities. The authority group in the network frequently raised conspiracy theories related to climate issues and highlighted farmer protests against Europe's Green Deal and carbon neutrality policies. The network's broadcaster group, on the other hand, tended to mock or criticize climate policy advocates in a harsh tone, often denying scientific evidence. The results can be used to inform the development of climate campaigns.

Evaluating the usefulness of Protection Motivation Theory for predicting climate change mitigation behavioral intentions among a US sample of climate change deniers and acknowledgers

BackgroundThis paper summarizes data from 7 studies that used Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to guide climate messaging with the goal of increasing climate-mitigating behavioral intentions. Together, the studies address 5 research questions. 1) Does PMT predict behavioral intentions in the context of climate change mitigation? 2) Does PMT work similarly for climate change deniers vs acknowledgers? 3) Are the effects of threat and efficacy additive or multiplicative? 4) Does adding measures of collective threat and efficacy improve the model accuracy for a collective problem like climate change? 5) Can threat and efficacy appraisals – and ultimately behavioral intentions – be shifted through climate messaging?MethodsSeven online experiments were conducted on US adults (N = 3,761) between 2020 and 2022. Participants were randomly assigned to a control condition or to one of several experimental conditions designed to influence threat, efficacy, or both. Participants indicated their belief in climate change, ethnicity, gender, and political orientation. They completed measures of personal threat and efficacy, collective threat and efficacy, and behavioral intentions.ResultsMultiple regressions, ANCOVAs, and effect sizes were used to evaluate our research questions. Consistent with PMT, threat and efficacy appraisals predicted climate mitigation behavioral intentions, even among those who denied climate change. Different interactions emerged for climate deniers and acknowledgers, suggesting that in this context threat and efficacy are not just additive in their effects (but these effects were small). Including measures of collective threat and efficacy only modestly improved the model. Finally, evidence that threat and efficacy appraisals can be shifted was weak and inconsistent; mitigation behavioral intentions were not reliably influenced by the messages tested.ConclusionsPMT effectively predicts climate change mitigation behavioral intentions among US adults, whether they deny climate change or acknowledge it. Threat appraisals may be more impactful for deniers, while efficacy appraisals may be more impactful for acknowledgers. Including collective-level measures of threat and efficacy modestly improves model fit. Contrary to PMT research in other domains, threat and efficacy appraisals were not easily shifted under the conditions tested here, and increases did not reliably lead to increases in behavioral intentions.

Triple exposure: the geographic correlation between flood risk, climate skepticism, and social vulnerability in the United States

Abstract This study investigates the geographic correlation between flood risk, climate skepticism, and social vulnerability across the United States. Our results reveal a systematic underestimation of flood risk in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps, especially in Appalachia, parts of New England, and the Northwest. These three regions face two additional risks: high levels of social vulnerability and skepticism about climate change. Nationally, there is a statisically significant correlation (0.19, p < 0.005) between flood risk and climate change skepticism, which increases (0.28, p < 0.005) in regions with high FEMA undercounts and elevated flood risk. Climate change skepticism manifests as distrust in science, an underestimation of property and community risk, and a resistance to mitigation and adaptation efforts. Indicators of social vulnerability, such as poverty rates, physical disabilities, unemployment, households in mobile homes, and lack of vehicle access, are especially pronounced in Appalachia. Addressing this geographically-embedded triple exposure—flood risk, social vulnerability, climate change skepticism— requires strategies to enhance local resilience. These include revising the 100-year floodplain categorization in FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program to better reflect climate change, conducting public education campaigns in vulnerable communities, and scaling-up financial assistance for flood mitigation and adaptation projects.

I trust (you) therefore I am! From trust to post-trust: Transforming social paradigms

This paper challenges the conventional belief that trust is an essential component of social cohesion, for example, in the context of climate change denial and post-truth politics. It argues that simply increasing trust or distrust does not address the underlying issues of contemporary societal challenges. This is because these efforts presuppose a ‘trusting subject’ at the heart of the problem. The paper examines the process of subjectification, exploring forms of modern subjectification and how they relate to trust, and how individuals become trusting subjects in relation to and within certain social frameworks. Introducing a new typology, it categorises trust into subjectifying, counter-subjectifying and post-subjectifying forms, revealing how trust both influences and is influenced by social dynamics and power structures. The conclusion advocates a ‘post-trust’ approach, urging a reimagining of relationships with nature and others. This approach emphasises the interconnectedness of human and non-human actors and calls for new forms of relationality and sensitivity to address global challenges effectively.