Peering Into the Minds of the Climate Doubters
As Facts Become Irrefutable, Deniers Become Less Convinced
By J. J. Goldberg
Published April 07, 2014, issue of April 11, 2014, Jewish Daily Forward
It’s a truism of science that major, transformative events provide unique opportunities to gather data. Seismologists wait for earthquakes to measure tectonic movement. Research meteorologists risk their lives chasing tornadoes to learn their mysteries. Zoologists swing into action during mating season (of the animals, silly).
Climate study can work in much the same way. Take United Nations climate reports. Released only once every few years, they offer a chance to see how the public reacts, who accepts the science, who rushes to pour cold water on it, and why. They’re particularly helpful in testing the claim that skepticism on global warming is just a scam by Big Oil, not an informed set of observations.
The search leads us into three distinct fields of study. First, mainstream climate science, the sort you read about in The New York Times when the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issues another scary report. Second, skeptical climate science, derisively called climate denialism. That’s the one that tells you the U.N.’s computer models don’t work, global temperatures stopped rising a decade ago and Al Gore should return his Nobel Prize.
The third might surprise you. It’s a growing field of research into the psychology of climate change denial. It starts by assuming that the U.N. scientists know what they’re talking about, that man-made global warming is a real threat and that people who say otherwise have something wrong with them. Skeptics find all this insulting. But it’s growing field with a substantial body of serious academic research, too serious to be ignored.
(Read more here.)
By J. J. Goldberg
Published April 07, 2014, issue of April 11, 2014, Jewish Daily Forward
It’s a truism of science that major, transformative events provide unique opportunities to gather data. Seismologists wait for earthquakes to measure tectonic movement. Research meteorologists risk their lives chasing tornadoes to learn their mysteries. Zoologists swing into action during mating season (of the animals, silly).
Climate study can work in much the same way. Take United Nations climate reports. Released only once every few years, they offer a chance to see how the public reacts, who accepts the science, who rushes to pour cold water on it, and why. They’re particularly helpful in testing the claim that skepticism on global warming is just a scam by Big Oil, not an informed set of observations.
The search leads us into three distinct fields of study. First, mainstream climate science, the sort you read about in The New York Times when the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issues another scary report. Second, skeptical climate science, derisively called climate denialism. That’s the one that tells you the U.N.’s computer models don’t work, global temperatures stopped rising a decade ago and Al Gore should return his Nobel Prize.
The third might surprise you. It’s a growing field of research into the psychology of climate change denial. It starts by assuming that the U.N. scientists know what they’re talking about, that man-made global warming is a real threat and that people who say otherwise have something wrong with them. Skeptics find all this insulting. But it’s growing field with a substantial body of serious academic research, too serious to be ignored.
(Read more here.)
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