Despite overwhelming evidence that global heating has begun and is likely to continue, the US is not alone in its denial. A majority of world leaders and scientists agree that planet Earth is warming due to human activities. After the numerous scientific studies that have shown that global warming is real, as well as the increasing incidence of extreme weather events around the globe and the rapid melting of the Polar ice sheets, one would assume that climate change denial would cease to exist. However, this is far from the truth. An article in Global Environmental Change, citing below, describes that Constantine Boussalis from Trinity College Dublin’s Department of Political Science and Travis G. Coan from University of Exeter’s Department of Politics and Exeter Q-Step Centre in England explain how a large percentage of Americans, and a substantial number of US lawmakers, reject the consensus view. The 1998 increase in science-based reports by conservative think tanks has led to a decline in policy-related reports. Source: Global Environmental Change. Climate change denialism campaign is well-funded. While there are many possible causes of the denials of climate change, the most prominent one centers on the actions of a well-organized and well-funded countermovement to climate change sceptics. Professor. Boussalis, and Prof. Coan claim that their research examines the literature regarding organized climate change skepticalism. It provides the first comprehensive outline of the conservative think-tank sceptical discourse for almost years. They gathered and analyzed more than 16,000 documents from 19 organisations from 1998 to 2013, mainly American groups such as the Enterprise Institute, the Heartland Institute, and the Cato Institute. The methodology was also used to determine key themes. It found that conservative think tanks have produced significantly more content in the last ten years. The number of publications by conservative think tanks devoted to denial about climate change has increased significantly over the last decade. Simply put, the conservative think tank publications that have been published in the past decade have focused more on climate change denial science and less on policy topics. Climate change denial persists despite all the evidence. Professor Coan stated that climate change denial is not in decline. In an interview with The Guardian Prof. Coan explained that “One hand, we knew that both academia and the media believed science denial was declining.” This didn’t match our casual readings of skeptical literature. Therefore, a major motivation for the paper was to test the idea. “But, with all that said, I was surprised by the rise: My prior expectation was that denial of science or policy has remained fairly constant, on average.” Robert Brulle of Drevel University, Pyiladelphia wrote in The Washington Post that this does not seem to be true. He explained, “Recent scholarship document[s] the coordinated efforts by conservative foundations to promote uncertainty. This campaign of disinformation has greatly altered the nature and political polarization surrounding the topic, which made meaningful legislative action almost impossible. Recent investigative news reports support these findings, showing that top scientists and executives in the fossil fuel sector have known for some time that they are contributing to climate-warming emission increases. Global Environmental Change. Volume 36, January 2016, Pages 89-100. DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.12.001. Video: Why are people still denying climate change?
