Climate Change Denial Research Articles

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.

Roots, trees, and the re-enchantment of nature: the French new right’s eco-political utopia

ABSTRACT People on the radical right are often considered to be climate deniers. Today, however, the new right in France has embraced a radical, ecological agenda and set out to experiment with traditional, agrarian ways of life. This paper asks how the new right currently revives a far-right tradition of ecological thought and how they practice this ecological vision. To move forward with their ethno-ecological utopia and salvage European civilization, they turn away from national politics and create local communities or ‘identitarian sanctuaries’. This article explores the new right’s practiced eco-utopias from three different angles. First, it shows how the ‘native soil’ and notions of ‘rootedness’ are pivotal for their understanding of identity. Second, it examines how the new right reframes ‘biodiversity’ as a plurality of European cultures, currently threatened by global capitalism and unchecked immigration. Finally, the article argues that the new right’s critique of modernity is not only political but also epistemic. To break free from modern scientific worldviews and enable a re-enchantment of nature, they turn to fantasy literature as well as Romantic and neo-pagan spiritualities.

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.

Inhibiting or Contributing? How Global Liberal Forces Impact Climate Change Skepticism

Although climate change remains a top environmental threat, significant portions of the global population continue to exhibit climate change skepticism. Currently, an extensive literature identifies the micro-level determinants of climate skepticism, often manifesting as a form of populist “backlash” to the adverse effects of globalization. However, the potential of macro-level global cultural forces—particularly embeddedness in liberal world society—to counter such pushback is unclear. Using multilevel modeling to analyze International Social Survey Program data spanning 37 countries from 2000 to 2020, we find that in general, increased embeddedness is linked to reduced climate skepticism. However, when global liberal forces encounter anti-liberal undercurrents within nation-states, a situation we refer to as cultural dissonance, the impact of liberal world society on tempering skepticism varies. Embeddedness mitigates skepticism at the national level, particularly within authoritarian regimes, but not at the individual level, especially among right-wing individuals. Paradoxically, world society also heightens ideological polarization of individual worldviews on climate change. By illuminating the contradictory role of liberal world society, which simultaneously exacerbates and inhibits anti-liberal, populist attitudes about climate change, we advance existing work examining the post-liberal turn and holds promise for making sense of other issue domains where liberal perspectives are contested.

How to distinguish climate sceptics, antivaxxers, and persistent sceptics: Evidence from a multi-country survey of public attitudes.

Distrust in science has been linked to scepticism over vaccines and climate change. Using data from nationally representative surveys administered in eight key countries for global efforts to mitigate climate change and COVID-19 (Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan, South Africa, the UK and US), we find that distrust in scientists was an important predictor variable for most sceptics, who were sceptical of one issue but not both, in February 2021, when most countries had experienced their first wave of the pandemic. However, the association was significantly weaker among the segment of hardcore sceptics who were both climate sceptics and antivaxxers. We demonstrate that these individuals tended to possess many of the typical sceptic characteristics such as high distrust in social institutions and rightward political orientation, which are (collectively) suggestive of an underlying sceptic mindset rather than a specific distrust of scientists. Our results suggest that different types of sceptics necessitate different strategies to dispel scepticism.

Climate Change Skeptics and the Power of Negativity

ABSTRACTClimate change is a polarized topic on social media in the U.S. Actors who advocate climate change as scientific fact, or tout it as a conspiracy, both post videos on YouTube. Both kinds of videos can receive millions of views and thousands of comments. Given the polarized nature of the topic, we might expect a high degree of vitriolic speech in the comments around the videos. Previous Twitter studies would also suggest significant differences in the networks made from the interactions of such comments and replies. This study focuses on these comments and replies in an effort to understand the nature of discourse surrounding climate change believer and skeptic videos. Our hope is to extend the existing literature studying scientific communication around climate change, which to our knowledge hasn't specifically compared discussions around both climate change believers or skeptics on YouTube. Results show most users only comment on other users that align with their own perspectives about climate change, and express positive sentiment toward them. Our study also finds that the more negative the users' comment, the more connections they have with other users. These findings indicate further investigations of climate change social activities on YouTube.

Comparing Climate Change Content and Comments across Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts and Long Videos

ABSTRACTSocial media plays a vital role as a communication channel for pertinent topics, including climate change. This paper investigates the content and comments of short and long‐format videos on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to compare climate change discourse on these platforms. Eighty videos and their respective 69,135 comments were collected and analyzed using content analysis, statistical analysis, data visualization, and social network analysis. Our findings show that in our dataset, videos in the short‐format (Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts) provide all sorts of content, while YouTube long videos only focus on educational and activism content. The short‐format videos also show different stances towards climate change, such as a climate change denier stance, while YouTube long videos do not. For comments, videos in the short‐format had less engagement compared to YouTube long videos. Our findings inform implications for both researchers and social media platform designers.

Concern about climate change in two protected natural areas of Spain: psychological barriers / La preocupación por el cambio climático en dos espacios naturales protegidos de España: barreras psicológicas

Climate change (CC) has been listed as the greatest risk to humanity, and the most appropriate strategies to address the situation depend largely on how the problem is perceived. The purpose of this study is to analyse social perceptions of CC in two natural areas of Spain (Garajonay and Sierra Espuña). Participants ( N = 334) showed high levels of concern and low levels of scepticism about CC. A factorial model was developed to explain the relationships between variables that affect concern about CC: scepticism, technological optimism, negative self-efficacy, political ideology and perceived signs of CC. The SEM model ( R2 = .65; χ2( df) = 223.65 (131); CFI = .968; RMSEA = .057) shows the strategic importance of considering the variables included (such as CC scepticism and technological optimism) so as to better understand the complex phenomenon of concern about CC.

Climate change as fake news. Positive attribute framing as a tactic against corporate reputation damage from the evaluations of sceptical, right-wing audiences

PurposeThe paper aims to examine whether CSR communication about a company’s support for climate change created using different content framing categories (positive vs negative) can lead climate change-sceptical audiences to positively influence their evaluations of the credibility of CSR communication, of a company and its actions, and lead to higher purchase intentions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper used an experimental design. About 266 respondents recruited via the Prolific platform were invited to participate in an online study. A between-subject design was used, and data was analysed using the bootstrapping technique, allowing to identify moderators of the relationship between CSR communication framing and different evaluations of a company.FindingsThe paper provides empirical support for the role of political preferences and climate change beliefs in predicting the preference for positive attribute framing among climate change sceptical audiences. It is argued that climate change sceptics are still in the process of deliberation about whether climate change is occurring.Research limitations/implicationsThe research findings may not be generalizable to countries where support for climate change is low, and a technique like attribute framing may not lead to noticeable differences in message reception.Practical implicationsThe paper underscores the impact of the type of attribute framing in CSR communication on different aspects of company evaluations depending on beliefs in climate change. Commercial communicators should additionally invest in climate change education to address the climate change challenge.Social implications Addressing climate change effectively requires support from companies to communicate their CSR efforts purposefully and to address climate change sceptical audiences.Originality/valueThe paper identifies beliefs in climate change as an important moderator of CSR communication attribute framing effectiveness.

Guiding interpretation towards deproblematization: A video interview with a Climate Change denier analysed as conspiracy theory

Guiding interpretation towards deproblematization: A video interview with a Climate Change denier analysed as conspiracy theory

Twenty‐Years of Anti‐Climate Change and Anti‐Evolution Education Legislation in the United States

ABSTRACTBoth evolution and climate change have broad scientific consensus, and yet they are the most contested scientific concepts in the US K‐12 education system. This study aimed to explore trends in proposed US state legislation employed from 2003 to 2023 by anti‐evolution and anti‐climate change education movements to constrain the teaching of these sciences. Using a historical qualitative research design, document analysis was used to evaluate state legislation and reports from the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). Two hundred and seventy‐three climate and evolution‐related House and Senate bills, concurrent resolutions, and joint resolutions were identified, coded, and analyzed. Eleven anti‐science education legislative tactics were employed from 2003 to 2023. Five were first identified in the literature review: academic freedom (42.1%), rebranding (12.1%), balanced treatment (12.1%), censorship (2.6%), and disclaimers (2.6%). Six new tactics were revealed in the analysis: anti‐indoctrination (16.8%), standards (12.1%), instructional materials (10.3%), religious liberty (8.8%), avoidance (4.4%), and religious instruction (4.0%). One‐quarter of bills and resolutions employed a combination of tactics. The most ubiquitous tactics were academic freedom bills, which urge science teachers to introduce ideas like intelligent design or climate change denial under the mantle of academic freedom, and anti‐indoctrination bills, which prevent teachers from advocating for controversial topics deemed political. Since 2017, anti‐indoctrination has become the preferred tactic. Southern, southeastern, and midwestern states were the most prolific in their contribution to anti‐science education legislation. Qualitative analysis revealed bill and resolution language was often recycled across years and states with slight changes to wording. From 2003 to 2023, the total number of anti‐science education state legislative efforts increased, as did the number of passed bills and resolutions. The implications of these tactics and trends are considered.

Defeating cap-and-trade: How the fossil fuel industry and climate change counter movement obstruct U.S. Climate Change Legislation

This study investigates the role of climate change contrarians in the defeat of the American Clean Energy and Security Act in 2010, a pivotal moment in U.S. climate policy that marked the end of extensive efforts to enact cap-and-trade climate legislation in the United States. Our research objectives are twofold: firstly, to determine the extent to which climate contrarians gained access to testify at congressional hearings in the years leading up to the bill’s ultimate defeat; and secondly, to examine the potential influence of fossil fuel industry (FFI) funds in facilitating this access. We compile a comprehensive new dataset encompassing all witnesses testifying at cap-and-trade and climate science hearings from 2003 to 2010. This information is cross-referenced with other pertinent data concerning interest groups, lobbying activities, and Congress. Our findings reveal a significant correlation between FFI lobbying expenditures and campaign contributions and the presence of contrarian witnesses at these hearings, suggesting a coordinated effort by the FFI to obstruct climate legislation. We find that contrarians were able to obtain disproportionate access to central hearings in key committees with jurisdiction over cap-and-trade bills, increasing their potential to obstruct legislation. Moreover, our analysis exposes a concerning over-representation of scientists known to deny the scientific consensus at these hearings, undermining the scientific consensus on climate change and perpetuating doubt about the urgency of climate action.

Ecopsychological Dynamics of Climate Denialism: Insights from the Jungian Concept of the “Humiliated Inner Child”

Ecopsychological Dynamics of Climate Denialism: Insights from the Jungian Concept of the “Humiliated Inner Child”

Impacts of ecosystem service message framing and dynamic social norms on public support for tropical forest restoration.

The effectiveness of strategic psychology-based marketing techniques for increasing public support for conservation is poorly understood. We assessed how such techniques affect support for tropical rainforest restoration with a controlled online experiment with 1166 nationally representative residents of the United Kingdom. We tested whether support increased when adding ecosystem service (ES) framings to typical nongovernmental organizations' (NGOs) biodiversity-focused messages that emphasize benefits to UK residents or people living near the tropical restoration site and a dynamic social norm nudge that emphasized increasing popularity of environmental restoration. We considered how respondents' psychological traits (nature connection, self-efficacy, psychological benefits of supporting charities, awareness of environmental degradation in the Global South, and climate change skepticism) influenced responses. Outcomes included respondents' reported advertisement sufficiency, sympathetic attitudes, behavioral support, and financial support. The study population typically found advertisements sufficient and exhibited sympathetic attitudes and financial, but not behavioral, support. Younger people exhibited greater conservation support than older respondents. Messages framed solely on biodiversity conservation were as effective as those highlighting additional ES benefits received by UK residents and people near the tropical restoration site. This suggests that framing around ESs, rather than nature's intrinsic value, may not strengthen public support for conservation. The dynamic social norm nudge had perverse effects. It reduced perceived social norms and most outcome variables. Alternative dynamic norm nudges warrant testing, but our results support research suggesting dynamic norm nudges can be ineffective when associated with activism, challenging their use by conservation NGOs. Psychological benefits of supporting charities and perceived self-efficacy increased support for advertisements, highlighting the benefits of including impact statements relating respondents' support to specific outcomes. Climate change skepticism decreased support, whereas nature connection and perceived static social norms increased it, highlighting the need to increase nature connection and pro-environmental social norms to elevate public support for conservation.