Climate Change Denial Research Articles

Obstruction, delay, and transnationalism: Examining the online climate change counter-movement

In this article, we provide a preliminary exploration of the Climate Change Counter Movement Hyperlink Network. Recognising the international growth of the Climate Change Counter Movement, we use a hyperlink analysis to 1) identify if the counter movement uses this platform, 2) identify the structural dynamics of the hyperlink network, and 3) if and how do movement organisations connect across countries. Our findings reveal that a combination of USA and non-USA actors are operational in the hyperlink network, where climate delaying and obstruction discourse can diffuse across countries. In addition, we found cohesive subgroups illuminating an alignment of interests between think tanks across countries on climate change, a distinct role played by blogs, and a small group of connected coal-related organisations promoting information on clean coal technologies. Lastly, we observe an alignment between climate change counter movement organisations and representative organisations of the traditional Wise Use Movement. These findings provide an intriguing account of the operations of a counter movement hyperlink network, expanding our knowledge on the transmission of counter movement across countries and what this means for further developments in this area of scholarship.

Socioeconomic Roots of Climate Change Denial and Uncertainty among the European Population

Abstract Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus, in many Western countries, there appears to be a considerable share of people questioning the existence and anthropogenic cause of climate change. Climate change disbelief includes the absolute rejection of the existence of anthropogenic climate change (climate change denial) as well as a lack of sureness about the anthropogenic cause of climate change (climate change uncertainty). Although considerable research on this phenomenon has been conducted, the roots of climate change disbelief are not yet fully understood. In this article, data from Round 8 of the European Social Survey are used to study the possible socioeconomic roots of climate change disbelief at the individual, regional, and country level. Results show that climate change denial is a marginal phenomenon among European populations but that a great share of people attributes climate change equally to human influences and natural processes. Thereby, it appears that the level of climate change disbelief varies between countries, and even more so between regions within countries. Results of various three-level multilevel models show that socioeconomic factors can partly explain this variation. Individuals who feel insecure about their economic future are significantly more likely to reject the existence of anthropogenic climate change. Furthermore, climate change denial and uncertainty are more common in more rural and less prosperous regions and in countries more economically dependent on fossil fuels. The results contribute to a deeper understanding of climate change disbelief among the European population and have important implications for climate change mitigation efforts.

Stand out of my sunlight: The mediating role of climate change conspiracy beliefs in the relationship between national collective narcissism and acceptance of climate science

Despite the scientific consensus about the anthropogenic nature of climate change, there are still obstacles hindering society from acknowledging the severity of the situation. Notably, previous research suggests that climate change threats can cause people to display ethnocentric reactions to preserve the ingroup’s interests. In this research, we investigate the relation between collective narcissism and attitudes towards climate science. We argue that national collective narcissism is negatively associated with the acceptance of climate science. We further hypothesized that this relation might be mediated by conspiracy beliefs about climate change, because narcissistic identifiers are prone to hold conspiracy beliefs. In a pilot study ( N = 409), we found that national collective narcissism was significantly associated with climate change conspiracy beliefs. In Study 1 ( N = 295), climate change conspiracy beliefs mediated the negative relation between national collective narcissism and acceptance of climate science. In Study 2 ( N = 375), this mediation was replicated when controlling for other forms of climate skepticism. Lastly, general conspiracy mentality did not mediate this relation, which emphasizes the importance of considering the specificity of climate change conspiracy theories (rather than generic propensity to believe in conspiracy theories) in understanding distrust of climate science.

Understanding the importance of sexism in shaping climate denial and policy opposition

Understanding the importance of sexism in shaping climate denial and policy opposition

Taking Lessons from Silent Spring: Using Environmental Literature for Climate Change

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) created a new genre termed “science nonfiction literature.” This genre blended environmental science and narrative while ushering in a new era of awareness and interest for both. With the contemporary climate crisis becoming more dire, this article returns to Carson’s work for insight into ways to engage deniers of climate change and methods to propel action. Further, it investigates and evaluates the writing within Silent Spring by considering its past in our present. Using the corporate reception of Carson’s book as reference, this article also examines ways climate change opponents create misunderstandings and inappropriately deceive and misdirect the public. Through this analysis, connections are made that connect literature, science, and public engagement, which can engender a broader, more comprehensive awareness of the importance of environmental literature as a medium for climate awareness progress.

Lifestyle decisions and climate mitigation: current action and behavioural intent of youth

Youth carry the burden of a climate crisis not of their making, yet their accumulative lifestyle decisions will help determine the severity of future climate impacts. We surveyed 17–18 year old’s (N = 487) to establish their action stages for nine behaviours that vary in efficacy of greenhouse gas emission (GGE) reduction and the explanatory role of climate change (CC) knowledge, sociodemographic and belief factors. Acceptance of CC and its anthropogenic origins was high. However, the behaviours with the greatest potential for GGE savings (have no children/one less child, no car or first/next car will be electric, eat less meat) have the lowest uptake. Descriptive normative beliefs predicted intent to adopt all high-impact actions, while environmental locus of control, CC scepticism, knowledge of the relative efficacy of actions, religiosity and age were predictive of action stage for several mitigation behaviours (multinomial logistic regression). These findings inform policy and communication interventions that seek to mobilise youth in the global climate crisis response.

The Gospel of Climate Skepticism: Why Evangelical Christians Oppose Action on Climate Change, by Robin Globus Veldman

The Gospel of Climate Skepticism: Why Evangelical Christians Oppose Action on Climate Change, by Robin Globus Veldman

Current surveys may underestimate climate change skepticism evidence from list experiments in Germany and the USA.

Strong public support is a prerequisite for ambitious and thus costly climate change mitigation policy, and strong public concern over climate change is a prerequisite for policy support. Why, then, do most public opinion surveys indicate rather high levels of concern and rather strong policy support, while de facto mitigation efforts in most countries remain far from ambitious? One possibility is that survey measures for public concern fail to fully reveal the true attitudes of citizens due to social desirability bias. In this paper, we implemented list-experiments in representative surveys in Germany and the United States (N = 3620 and 3640 respectively) to assess such potential bias. We find evidence that people systematically misreport, that is, understate their disbelief in human caused climate change. This misreporting is particularly strong amongst politically relevant subgroups. Individuals in the top 20% of the income distribution in the United States and supporters of conservative parties in Germany exhibit significantly higher climate change skepticism according to the list experiment, relative to conventional measures. While this does not definitively mean that climate skepticism is a widespread phenomenon in these countries, it does suggest that future research should reconsider how climate change concern is measured, and what subgroups of the population are more susceptible to misreporting and why. Our findings imply that public support for ambitious climate policy may be weaker than existing survey research suggests.

Confirmation Bias and the Persistence of Misinformation on Climate Change

A web-based two (preexisting position: correct vs. incorrect) by two (message type: scientific information vs. misinformation) by three (messages) mixed design experimental study was conducted to test confirmation bias as a mechanism underlying the persistence of misinformation on climate change and to examine attitude certainty as a moderator of confirmation bias. Data collected with Qualtrics panels demonstrated robust confirmation bias in message and source perceptions, empathy, and perceived message effectiveness when individuals encountered messages consistent with their preexisting position on climate change, which in turn strengthened their preexisting position. The patterns of biased message processing and post-message position polarization were more extreme among climate change deniers. Attitude certainty significantly intensified polarization of position on climate change.

Climate Change Knowledge and Political Identity in Australia

National data from the 2018 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes show that knowledge of climate change is positively associated with the scientific consensus position on anthropogenic climate change. Responses to factual quiz questions that include climate trigger terms such as “greenhouse gas” or reference to increased ocean temperature and acidification are influenced by one’s political party identification, with Liberal and National party identifiers tending to score lower than Labor partisans on climate knowledge scales. Yet, responses to climate-related factual questions sans trigger terms are not influenced by political partisanship. Climate skeptics tend to score lower on climate knowledge scales than those who accept anthropogenic climate change, although skeptics also tend to have inflated confidence in their factual knowledge of climate change.

Climate change denial is associated with diminished sensitivity in internalizing environmental externalities

espite a strong scientific consensus about the existence of anthropogenic climate change, widespread scepticism in the general population continues to exist. Past research has largely relied on self-reported behaviours or behavioural intentions when investigating downstream ‘behavioural’ consequences of climate change denial. As a consequence, there remains a large gap in the literature about how belief in climate change interacts with the pursuit of self-interested, environmentally harmful behaviours. To fill that gap, the present research uses a novel, experimental economic paradigm that allows to attach true environmental consequences to laboratory decisions. Based on ∼56 000 pollution decisions from 2273 participants in more than 30 countries, we find that belief in climate change meaningfully affects decision-making. Our results show that climate change scepticism predicts self-interested choices and showcases that sceptics have an insensitive acceptance of emissions, reaping benefits no matter how large the climate cost are or how small the personal benefits become. Therefore, our results critically augment meta-analytic evidence arguing that downstream behavioural consequences are small to medium in their effect size. We discuss the use of experimental economic paradigms as a crucial innovation tool for psychological research addressing people’s willingness to engage in climate action.

A Climate Backlash: Comparing Populist Parties’ Climate Policies in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden

The rise of authoritarian populism has disrupted the patterns of party competition in many Western societies. Related to this development, the current debates in the United States and European Union illustrate how empirical science on climate change may become intensely politicized, and all ambitious climate policies challenged in the contemporary political landscape. We set out an analytical framework with three ideal types of political strategies for opposing climate policies: climate science denialism, climate policy nationalism, and climate policy conservativism. Empirically, the article investigates populist resistance to ambitious climate change policy in the Nordic context, where countries have sought to assume global leadership in climate politics and have considerable public support for climate action. In an analysis of the evolving positions of populist parties in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden in recent elections, the article sheds light on the interconnection between populism and climate change policy.

Personality and the pro-environmental individual: Unpacking the interplay between attitudes, behaviour and climate change denial

Individual variation in attitudes is hindering our efforts to address global anthropogenic climate change. To better understand climate change deniers, we considered the relationship between climate change denial and environmentalism constructs through an individual differences perspective. We aimed to identify the personality traits associated with climate change denial, environmental self-concept, and pro-environmental behaviours. We measured personality using the Big Five Aspect Scales. Using hierarchical multiple regressions, we determined the personality profile that predicts climate change denial, ecological self-concept, and pro-environmental behaviour. At the domain level, the Openness/Intellect domain significantly predicted each of the environmental constructs, and the Agreeableness domain was predictive of ecological self-concept and climate change acceptance. At the aspect level, the Openness aspect was the primary personality predictor for each construct. Our results demonstrate that aspect level analyses could be more efficacious than domain level analysis, as they have greater specificity and explanatory power.

Antropoceno patriarcal, petro-masculinidades e masculinidades industriais: diálogos feministas sobre a crise climática

This article critically analyzes how far-right political male elites persistently deny climate change, a political-discursive strategy of maintaining the status quo, which has historically benefited them. Making use of concepts such as «petro-masculinity» and «industrial masculinities», and introducing the concept of «patriarchal Anthropocene», this paper argues that climate denial is inextricably linked to these leaders’ masculine identities. Thus, these discourses contribute to the (re)production of authoritarian and ecologically irresponsible masculinities.

On the Socio-Cultural Determinants of Polish Entrepreneurs’ Attitudes towards the Development of Renewable Energy: Business, Climate Skepticism Ideology and Climate Change

This article analyses the business community in Poland and their views on climate change and the objectives of the European Green Deal (EGD). The authors focus on the analysis of the attitude of entrepreneurs towards the cultural and ideological stereotypes promoted by climate denialists. This article shows that the ideological factor may play a certain role in shaping the attitudes of entrepreneurs towards energy transition. The research was carried out on a sample of 400 entrepreneurs. The research results indicate that the ideological factor is of particular importance among entrepreneurs who are concerned about the costs of energy transition and the expenditure related to the implementation of the EGD for economic reasons. According to the authors, the stereotypes promoted by climate sceptics may find fertile ground, particularly when accompanied by fears of additional financial costs. Attitudes towards the goals of energy transition among entrepreneurs usually differ depending on the size of the company: representatives of smaller companies, who have greater concerns about their economic position, are more likely to present the views of climate sceptics. Acceptance for the theory of climate sceptics may also be influenced by the industry sector: those who may lose out on energy transition, such as representatives of the mining industry, may share the myths of climate denialists.

AndrewJewettScience Under Fire: Challenges to Scientific Authority in Modern AmericaHarvard University Press, 2020, 356 p., $39.95

Rejection of science—or what is labeled as rejection of science—is a notorious feature of the contemporary cultural and political landscape in the United States. Highly visible instances are dismissals of evolutionary theory, climate change denial, and antivaccine movements. In this deeply researched and thoughtful book, Andrew Jewett describes tensions about science over the past century, with a focus on the 1920s, the 1960s and 1970s, and the present. Jewett argues that the 1920s witnessed the first intense and widespread disputes in the United States over scientific authority. The controversies in this period concerned not only evolutionary theory (e.g., Scopes Trial) but also, and more importantly, modern psychology, which became a fixture in widely read newspapers and periodicals, to the dismay of those attached to religiously grounded understandings of human personality and what constitutes proper child socialization. The second period of tension about science Jewett identifies and examines in depth was the post-WWII decades, especially the 1960s and 1970s. Ironically from the standpoint of the present, it was if anything public intellectuals on the left who expressed dismay and distrust of science. “scientism” was viewed as intrinsically hostile to humanistic values, with soulless technology and an implicitly materialistic worldview posing at least as much risk to the achievement of a just and compassionate society as conservative religious institutions. The final period that Jewett considers is the first two decades of the twenty-first century. The tensions he describes are entirely familiar, but they take on a fresh appearance with the historical backdrop he provides, and his nuanced portrait of the positions of the key protagonists produces a welcome respect for the complexity of ongoing intellectual and political controversies. Over the entire century from the 1920s to the present, the unifying theme in the questioning of scientific authority has been the allegation that scientists, while ostensibly value-neutral, have injected social philosophies into American life that have damaged the social and moral order. Jewett concludes with a plea to approach science more matter-of-factly. Scientific tools can be credited with producing tremendous gains in human well-being but within rather circumscribed domains. Much that is highly valued in the human experience lies outside the reach of modern science.

Strategic clustering in right-wing-populism? \u2018Green policies\u2019 in Germany and France

Past research pointed to the idea that right-wing ideology and climate-change skepticism are inherently linked. Empirical reality proves differently however, since right-wing populist parties are starting to adapt pro environmentalist stances. In this paper, we look into two prominent cases of diametrical diverging environmental strategies by right-wing-populist-parties: France’s Rassemblement National and Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland. In order convey this point, we use comparative qualitative content analysis and examine several decisive determinants regarding environmental strategies of right-wing populist parties. We argue that right-wing-populism is remarkably adaptable considering political opportunity structures, even clustering in ideologically diametrical versions of the same issue while each party coherently extends its policy-orientation to its respective alignment of the issue. That means, populism might be far less ideological than assumed in the past.

Improving the usability of climate indicator visualizations through diagnostic design principles

Visual climate indicators have become a popular way to communicate trends in important climate phenomena. Producing accessible visualizations for a general audience is challenging, especially when many are based on graphics designed for scientists, present complex and abstract concepts, and utilize suboptimal design choices. This study tests whether diagnostic visualization guidelines can be used to identify communication shortcomings for climate indicators and to specify effective design modifications. Design guidelines were used to diagnose problems in three hard-to-understand indicators, and to create three improved modifications per indicator. Using online surveys, the efficacy of the modifications was tested in a control versus treatment setup that measured the degree to which respondents understood, found accessible, liked, and trusted the graphics. Furthermore, we assessed whether respondents’ numeracy, climate attitudes, and political party affiliation affected the impact of design improvements. Results showed that simplifying modifications had a large positive effect on understanding, ease of understanding, and liking, but not trust. Better designs improved understanding similarly for people with different degrees of numerical capacity. Moreover, while climate skepticism was associated with less positive subjective responses and greater mistrust toward climate communication, design modification improved understanding equally for people across the climate attitude and ideological spectrum. These findings point to diagnostic design guidelines as a useful tool for creating more accessible, engaging climate graphics for the public.

Making Change Visible – An Explorative Case Study of Dealing With Climate Change Deniers in Forest Education

Abstract This case study addresses the issue of climate change denial among students in their first year of vocational education. It was possible to shake the belief that man-made climate change was not happening, through letting students measure the potential of natural forest vegetation and compare their findings with those gathered by their peers nine years earlier. The comparison revealed that old forests had turned into ecosystems, which were adapted for dryer warmer climates. For education for sustainable development, forest education and biology lessons offer the opportunity to establish a long term project, in which peer-to-peer-learning over generations of students is possible, with a high rate of acceptance of the results generated by the former students.

Scare-quoting climate: The rapid rise of climate denial in the Swedish far-right media ecosystem

Abstract The final years of the 2010s marked an upturn in coverage on climate change. In Sweden, legacy media wrote more on the issue than ever before, especially in connection to the drought and wildfires in the summer of 2018 and the Fridays for Future movement started by Greta Thunberg. Reporting on climate change also reached unprecedented levels in the growingly influential far-right media ecosystem; from being a topic discussed hardly at all, it became a prominent issue. In this study, we use a toolkit from critical discourse analysis (CDA) to research how three Swedish far-right digital media sites reported on climate during the years 2018–2019. We show how the use of conspiracy theories, anti-establishment rhetoric, and nationalistic arguments created an antagonistic reaction to increased demands for action on climate change. By putting climate in ironic quotation marks, a discourse was created where it was taken for granted that climate change was a hoax.