Climate Change Denial Research Articles

Climate Communication, Public Health, and Social Media: Examining the Role of Health Agencies in Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health

The impacts of climate change on human health are a critical public health concern, with previous studies highlighting its clear effects on well-being. Understanding how state and territorial health agencies (STHAs) are addressing these emerging risks is important. This study conducted 26 in-depth interviews across the U.S. to explore the perceptions and communication strategies of STHA officials regarding climate change’s impact on human health. Additionally, the study sought to identify the primary challenges faced by these officials to effectively communicate the impacts. Thematic analysis of the data revealed three major themes: community building and coalitions, climate denialism on social media, and misinformation about climate change and its effects on human health. These findings offer valuable insights for climate change and public health communication. The importance of the STHAs’ development of technical and informational capacity to effectively communicate climate-related risks and threats is emphasized.

Public Opinion and the Energy Transition in East Asia: The Case of Taiwan

Previous research in Western nations has established a clear connection between pro-environmental public opinion and clean energy transition policies aligned with Sustainable Development Goals 7 and 13. However, little is known about this relationship in East Asia, the most important region of the world in terms of carbon emissions. Using the International Social Survey Program and Taiwan Social Change Survey results from 2010 and 2020, this study examines public opinion in Taiwan on environmental issues, comparing it with opinion in a group of 18 OECD countries. Results show high but stable support for the environment and the energy transition in Taiwan over this period, with no indications of climate denial. However, willingness to make sacrifices for the environment is sharply lower among the lower half of the income distribution, highlighting existing socioeconomic disparities and inequality. Further, political engagement around environmental issues remains relatively low in Taiwan compared to engagement in the OECD comparison group. This disjunction suggests a unique model of public opinion and policy outcomes in Taiwan, which is clearly distinct from patterns in the West. Comprehending this model is vital, considering East Asia’s necessary role in a global clean energy transition.

Dealing with the Quiet Opposition? News Coverage of Climate Skepticism in Two Finnish Newspapers 1990–2021

ABSTRACT This article examines news coverage of climate skepticism in two Finnish newspapers between 1990 and 2021. It approaches climate skepticism as a professional problem that involves a tension between conventional professional ideals that underscore balanced coverage of conflicts and emerging ideals that stress communicating climate change responsibly. Content analysis focused on two core forms of climate skepticism that have remained relatively stable throughout the 31-year research period: evidence and process skepticism. The presence of all kinds of skeptical contents (skeptical arguments, arguments against skepticism, and descriptions of skepticism) was examined to evalutate the overall media visibility of climate skepticism. The analysis then focused specifically on the coverage of skeptical arguments. The role of sources as well as the use of journalistic voice in the presentation of skeptical contents was examined. This study elaborates earlier anecdotal accounts concerning the limited public role of climate skepticism in Finland. Four per cent of news articles included sources who were quoted presenting their own skeptical views. Skeptical arguments were mainly presented by quoting foreign sources whereas arguments against skepticism were presented by quoting domestic climate scientists. “Climategate” caused the most notable increase in the volume of skeptical contents during the research period.

Climate Change Misinformation in the United States: An Actor–Network Analysis

Climate change misinformation refers to inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading climate change-related information created and spread in the public domain. Despite substantial consensus among the scientific community on the reality of anthropogenic climate change, public opinion still remains divided. Combating the climate crisis requires immediate and meaningful actions; however, various actors generate and propagate climate change misinformation, with vested interests in sowing doubts in the public sphere about the reality and urgency of climate impacts. The United States of America, where public opinion holds a strong sway in many social and political spheres, acts as a pertinent case in point, where the prevalence of climate denial fueled by persistent climate change misinformation contributes to this divided public perspective. For this reason, it is imperative to enhance the understanding of the subtle ways climate change misinformation exists and functions. This article employs actor–network theory and the concept of black-boxing to explore a case of climate change misinformation in the United States, with the aim of comprehending the workings of climate change misinformation within its network.

Environmental Ethnography

Environmental ethnography is discussed here from involvement with a local government authority in Aotearoa New Zealand focused on soil, water and land management. Climate change and environmental degradation are making such local government work more difficult and expensive. As costs trend upwards and new rules are applied, community challenges to local authorities increase. Environmental ethnography identifies constraints on the organisational ability to meet infrastructural needs to produce environmental solutions locally. Some constraints are internal (organisational), some are local (community beliefs and attitudes), but the most significant constraints are external to local agencies. In ethnographic terms, working with local and national environmental authorities is a process of learning from staff, scientists, and administrators. Māori and Pākehā communities’ efforts to manage their local destinies provide insights into pressures on local government organisations. Landowners’ expectations and politicised discourses of climate denial or deferral also constrain day-to-day local authority work. Three intersections of local authority organisations' actions and local communities’ responses emerge from reflecting on this ethnographic learning, each shaping what local authorities can achieve. First, the social is not another set of insights; rather, the social is in the science. Second, in Aotearoa New Zealand the familiar nature-society binary is usefully disturbed by mātauranga Māori understandings of people and the environment. Third, changing modern productivist attitudes towards the environment is more than local—it is national and global—yet people’s responses are also intensely local. Environmental ethnography helps illuminate such tensions that create organisational and community dilemmas for local government authorities.

Navigating the climate change minefield: the influence of metaphor on climate doomism

Climate doomism is an increasing concern for climate change communication. In the United States, this opinion regarding anthropogenic climate change is now more prevalent than climate skepticism, and is the primary reason cited for opposition to climate action. Doomism is the belief that catastrophic warming of the planet is now inevitable, and that effective mitigation is impossible. The behaviors resulting from this view are comparable to the result of climate skepticism: doomism produces paralyzing eco-anxiety and subsequently inaction. Prior work has hypothesized that the rise in climate doomism and eco-anxiety is linked to climate change risk communication. This study investigates the possibility that the metaphoric language used to communicate the severity and urgency of climate change could inadvertently promote doomism. We employ a survey model to test the influence of metaphoric language on perception of urgency, feasibility, and individual agency in relation to the climate crisis. American English-speaking participants (N = 1,542) read a paragraph describing climate change either as a “cliff edge” or “minefield,” with human agency manipulated to be present or absent. Responses were considered to be doomist if they reported a high sense of urgency, paired with a low sense of feasibility and/or agency; this indicates they have a high awareness of the risks associated with the climate crisis, but a low belief that it will be addressed, and/or that their actions can produce meaningful change. Use of either metaphor improved perceived feasibility without a reduction in urgency, indicating that metaphor is an effective climate communication strategy for conveying risk without promoting doomism. However, metaphoric presentation is only effective when paired with human agency, suggesting that agency is a necessary component for successful metaphoric climate communication strategies.

In a time of theoretical expansion and change, don’t throw babies out with the bath water

ABSTRACT Various challenges faced by the psychoanalyst when moving from “on the couch” work to “off the couch” work are raised and discussed. It is argued that the biggest challenges concern methodology: what now constitutes the analytic setting and field, and what counts as analytic data? The author describes some of the methodological challenges she has faced so far in studying climate change denial at individual, group, cultural and political levels. She raises potential pitfalls with “off the couch” work, that include overgeneralisations and assuming one can directly apply insights gained “on the couch” to wider contexts. In conclusion, she reflects that her training and practice working with individuals on the couch has proved bedrock in working “off the couch”.

Publicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions

We analysed a recently released corpus of climate-related tweets to examine the macro-level factors associated with public declarations of climate change scepticism. Analyses of over 2 million geo-located tweets in the U.S. showed that climate scepticism – and the aggressiveness of climate-related tweets – was greater in states with higher per capita carbon emissions. This pattern remained significant after controlling for political conservatism, GDP per capita, education, and gender, and was replicated across 126 nations from around the world. The findings are consistent with a vested interest hypothesis—misinformation around climate change is most likely to be distributed in regions where there is high fossil fuel reliance, and where the economic stakes of acknowledging climate change are high. Understanding the macro-level patterns that are implicated in climate scepticism can help inform structural interventions for those seeking a low-carbon future.

Community adaptation to climate-related flooding in Saskatchewan

Sustainable Development Goal 13 advances planning and resilience particularly germane for communities at the forefront of exposure to climate impacts. With the increasing intensity and frequency of climate impacts, including flood, assessing the state of preparedness of communities through review of their policies, is increasingly important. This research used a mixed methods approach to develop community resilience indicators (based on planning for extreme flood events) supplemented by two round tables and six focus groups with community leaders in Saskatchewan.Several Saskatchewan communities were identified as exposed to extreme rainfall events as well as inundation from surrounding rivers and water bodies. Focus group and roundtable participants confirmed that flood events were becoming more frequent in recent years. Cities generally scored higher in resilience, however, some northern communities also scored high. Experience of floods wasn't a necessary prerequisite of flood planning as several communities had robust plans without historical flood experience. Communities that had experienced previous flood events scored higher on indicators of flood preparedness resilience. Two communities that had never experienced floods had high indicators, providing evidence that demonstrated coping capacity is not a necessary precondition of resilience.Explanations for failure to plan included inability to address contributing farming practices, the high cost of infrastructure, climate change denial within communities, and downplaying adaptation to climate change because of its high price tag. A generational divide was identified as concerning, and especially counterproductive to the attraction of young people to rural and remote communities. Solutions identified included expanding partnerships, sharing services within a wider regional community, and supporting capacity and leadership for this. While this research suffers from limitations relating to data availability, more research on why some communities have not yet planned for floods (even though they have experienced them) and a greater geography of study would be beneficial.

Correlates of climate change skepticism.

While much research has examined the correlates of climate change beliefs from an alarmist perspective, less work has systematically measured climate change skepticism. This study aims to create a comprehensive tool capturing climate skeptics' beliefs and test its association with individual difference variables. 502 European adults completed a 22-item questionnaire on climate change (CC) skepticism as well as measures of ambiguity tolerance, belief in a just world (BJW), dark-side personality traits, and self-esteem. Principal components analysis revealed a four dimension structure of CC. Political ideology was the most consistent and significant predictor across the climate change skepticism factors. Dark-side traits, also played a role. Future research should further validate this measure and explore how climate change information could be tailored to different audiences. Understanding the nuances and causes of climate skepticism can enable more effective communication to promote sustainability.

Effects of water scarcity awareness and climate change belief on recycled water usage willingness: Evidence from New Mexico, United States

The global water crisis is being exacerbated by climate change, even in the United States. Recycled water is a feasible alternative to alleviate the water shortage, but it is constrained by humans’ perceptions. The current study examines how residents’ water scarcity awareness and climate change belief influence their willingness to use recycled water directly and indirectly. Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) analytics was employed on a dataset of 1831 residents in Albuquerque, New Mexico, an arid inland region in the US. We discovered that residents’ willingness to use direct recycled potable water is positively affected by their awareness of water scarcity, but the effect is conditional on their belief in the impacts of climate change on the water cycle. Meanwhile, the willingness to use indirect recycled potable water is influenced by water scarcity awareness, and the belief in climate change further enhances this effect. These findings implicate that fighting climate change denialism and informing the public of the water scarcity situation in the region can contribute to the effectiveness and sustainability of long-term water conservation and climate change alleviation efforts.

Should Liberal Communities Respect Bad Believers? On Empirical Disagreement over Climate Change and Public Reason

Abstract Public reason liberalism strives to accommodate as broad an array of viewpoints as possible. Some people are selective science skeptics, meaning that they disagree with parts of mainstream science. Of special interest for this paper are climate deniers, who disagree with the mainstream consensus views of climate science. This creates a problem for public reason: on the one hand, public reason wants to avoid basing rules and policies on controversial principles, values, and so on. On the other hand, there are citizens whom we cannot outright call irrational who are skeptical about central tenets of climate science. This seems to imply that public reason cannot base policies on the robust findings of climate science because these findings are controversial among the citizenry. But we have strong reasons to base our policies vis-à-vis climate change on the robust findings of climate science. How should we proceed?

Eco-fascism: an oxymoron? Far-right nationalism, history, and the climate emergency

Can we conceive of a continuity in the way right-wing nationalisms address environmental issues from the origins of fascism to the currently ongoing global “polycrisis”? This article explores the use of the term “eco-fascism” in connection with the climate crisis and considers the political relationship between ecologism and the contemporary far right through a historical perspective, seeking to determine persisting patterns in the relationship between the far right and the environment. Section 1 travels back to the historical origins of this relationship between nationalism, fascism and the environment, arguing that the conceptions of nature adopted and nourished by fascism had scarcely anything to do with ecology in its contemporary meaning. Section 2 explores the most well-known and consolidated studies on the relationship between the far right and climate change denialism, identifying a broad consensus that unites scholars from various disciplines on the density, intensity and persistence of this political relationship in the current millennium. The article concludes by underlining the irreality, falsifiability and internal contradictions of the notion of “eco-fascism” at a time when right-wing regimes have seized power in many countries through the use of vocabularies and sentiments in defense of the territory and its resources, but with a substantial refusal to tackle global environmental problems.

The impact of climate skepticism on public participation of climate photos on Instagram:

The impact of climate skepticism on public participation of climate photos on Instagram:

Beyond Climate Denial

Much of the analysis of right-wing environmental thinking and religion in America has, understandably, focused on the history of climate change denial among evangelicals. However, this narrative is incomplete. I identify areas of shared ideology shaping new coalition building on the right, such as growing anti-immigration sentiments drawing on environmental and eco-fascist rhetoric as well as the rapid growth of apocalyptic conspiracy movements that feed on anxieties about the future, in particular a future made more uncertain by the encroaching realities of climate chaos. I argue that underpinning these ideologies is a kind of faith in a particular organization of power informed by a shared ideology of whiteness, which ascribes to a fundamental ordering of society threatened by climate action. In the face of rapidly escalating climate catastrophe, the marriage of environmentalism, nationalism and white supremacy may prove increasingly appealing to those across the spectrum on the American right.

Confronting climate denial in higher education to promote sustainable futures

By many accounts, societies, their institutions, and citizens are not doing enough, and with the necessary urgency, to address the climate crisis. While higher education institutions have embraced the rhetoric of sustainability and contributed to climate science, the development of renewables and other climate solutions, and a host of policy reforms that aim for greater sustainable development, this paper argues that particular forms of climate denial have impeded more transformative directions in higher education. These denials include denying the depth and magnitude of the problems that the planet and people around the world are facing, the unsustainability of continued limitless growth, and a denial of the contexts, legacies, and discourses that have often served to impede important reforms in higher education. Using a climate denial lens, this paper examines the role of different forms of denial in higher education, such as the role climate denial funding sources in universities and how historical legacies and modern neoliberal discourses continue to limit possibilities for more transformative reforms in higher education. The paper concludes by sharing how these forms of denial might be addressed to advance a stronger response to the climate crisis.

Climate Change Denial and Corporate Environmental Responsibility

AbstractThis paper examines whether corporate environmental responsibility is influenced by regional differences in climate change denial. While there is an overwhelming consensus among scientists that climate change is happening, recent surveys still indicate widespread climate change denial across societies. Given that corporate activity causing climate change is fundamentally rooted in individual beliefs and societal institutions, we examine whether local perceptions about climate change matter for firms’ engagement in environmental responsibility. We use climate change perception surveys conducted in the U.S. to compute a novel measure of climate change denial for each U.S. county. We find that firms located in counties with higher levels of climate change denial have weaker environmental performance ratings, are more likely to commit environmental violations, and impose greater environmental costs on society. Regional differences in religiosity, social capital, political leaning, or county-level demographic characteristics cannot explain these results. Furthermore, we document that strong corporate governance mechanisms and corporate culture moderate the negative relationship between climate change denial and corporate environmental responsibility. Overall, our findings offer new insights into how local beliefs and perceptions about climate change may influence firm-level sustainability practices.

Do Individual Differences in Perception Affect Awareness of Climate Change?

One significant obstacle to gaining a widespread awareness of the ongoing climate change is the nature of its manifestations in relation to our perception: climate change effects are gradual, distributed, and sometimes seemingly contradictory. These features result in a lag in collective climate action and sometimes foster climate skepticism and climate denial. While the literature on climate change perception and belief has thoroughly explored its sociocultural and sociopolitical aspects, research on the potential contribution of psychophysiological factors remains scarce. In this perspective paper, we outline evidence and arguments for the involvement of psychophysiological systems such as thermoception, hygroreception, and interoception in modulating climate change awareness. We discuss psychophysiological mechanisms of climate change awareness in animals and humans, as well as possible sources of individual variance in climate change perception. We conclude by suggesting novel research questions which would be worthwhile to pursue in future studies.

The social anatomy of climate change denial in the United States

Using data from Twitter (now X), this study deploys artificial intelligence (AI) and network analysis to map and profile climate change denialism across the United States. We estimate that 14.8% of Americans do not believe in climate change. This denialism is highest in the central and southern U.S. However, it also persists in clusters within states (e.g., California) where belief in climate change is high. Political affiliation has the strongest correlation, followed by level of education, COVID-19 vaccination rates, carbon intensity of the regional economy, and income. The analysis reveals how a coordinated social media network uses periodic events, such as cold weather and climate conferences, to sow disbelief about climate change and science, in general. Donald Trump was the strongest influencer in this network, followed by conservative media outlets and right-wing activists. As a form of knowledge vulnerability, climate denialism renders communities unprepared to take steps to increase resilience. As with other forms of misinformation, social media companies (e.g., X, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok) should flag accounts that spread falsehoods about climate change and collaborate on targeted educational campaigns.

A Biblical-Theological Critique of Neo-Liberal and Neo-Conservative Evangelicalism in the Season of Climate Change

Abstract The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism upon American evangelicalism. It does so in the season of climate change. Given the commitment of neo-liberalism to the sovereignty of individual, the notion of government intervention in implementing climate mitigation policies is perceived as an unacceptable violation of freedom. It sits along the ideological challenge of neo-conservatism. Its emphasis on an ‘enduring-moral order’ has inadvertently culminated in ethnocentric anti-globalism, which theoretically conflicts with neo-liberalism’s ideals. These two worldviews are both to be found in expressions of American evangelicalism, however. What might be a biblical-theological response? The argument draws upon the corporate nature of salvific claims, the early church governance in Luke-Acts and finally the social-gospel movement to challenge the association of evangelicalism with the Republican Party. The significance of this critique is due to the way in which this association lies at the heart of climate scepticism.