Climate Science Glossary

Term Lookup

Enter a term in the search box to find its definition.

Settings

Use the controls in the far right panel to increase or decrease the number of terms automatically displayed (or to completely turn that feature off).

Term Lookup

Settings


All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

Home Arguments Software Resources Comments The Consensus Project Translations About Support

Twitter Facebook YouTube Mastodon MeWe

RSS Posts RSS Comments Email Subscribe


Climate's changed before
It's the sun
It's not bad
There is no consensus
It's cooling
Models are unreliable
Temp record is unreliable
Animals and plants can adapt
It hasn't warmed since 1998
Antarctica is gaining ice
View All Arguments...



Username
Password
New? Register here
Forgot your password?

Latest Posts

Archives

Two more reviews of Climate Change Denial

Posted on 12 August 2011 by John Cook

Climate Change Denial by Haydn Washington and John Cook Over the last few days, I've come across two more reviews of Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand, by Haydn Washington and myself. The first was a typically thoughtful post by Kate from Climate Sight (who has also contributed to SkS in the past):

I recently finished reading Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand by Haydn Washington and Skeptical Science founder John Cook. Given that I am a longtime reader of (and occasional contributor to) Skeptical Science, I didn’t expect to find much in this book that was new to me. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

Right from Chapter 1, Washington and Cook discuss a relatively uncharted area among similar books: denial among people who accept the reality of climate change. Even if a given citizen doesn’t identify as a skeptic/contrarian/lukewarmer/realist/etc, they hold information about global warming at arm’s length. The helplessness and guilt they feel from the problem leads them to ignore it. This implicit variety of denial is a common “delusion”, the authors argue – people practice it all the time with problems related to their health, finances, or relationships – but when it threatens the welfare of our entire planet, it is a dangerous “pathology”.

Therefore, the “information deficit model” of public engagement – based on an assumption that political will for action is only lacking because citizens don’t have enough information about the problem – is incorrect. The barriers to public knowledge and action aren’t scientific as much as “psychological, emotional, and behavioural”, the authors conclude.

This material makes me uncomfortable. An information deficit model would work to convince me that action was needed on a problem, so I have been focusing on it throughout my communication efforts. However, not everyone thinks the way I do (which is probably a good thing). So what am I supposed to do instead? I don’t know how to turn off the scientist part of my brain when I’m thinking about science.

You can read the full review here. The comments thread features some interesting discussion also.

The other review was by Janine Kitson, published in Education, a journal by the NSW Teachers Federation.

This is a crucial book to read before runaway climate change is truly beyond our control. One can only hope that this book will be read by climate deniers so we can start the challenging journey to an ecologically sustainable future. The book finishes on a positive note:

"Climate change action is not about doom and gloom: it's about a new future, new technologies, new markets and a new world view of how we can live on Earth. It won't be simple or easy, but if we can face and conquer our denial, then our future is exciting as we make a better world."

You can read the full review here. I've added excerpts from both reviews to our list of reviews of Climate Change Denial.

0 0

Printable Version  |  Link to this page

Comments

Comments 1 to 1:

  1. OT but for those interested in seeing some of the most common denialist memes 'in the raw', go to this website. They are trying to find the most popular climate change questions from the public: The Climate Agenda Andrew Bolts' minions have hijacked the voting (predictable) but the interesting thing is the comments attached to each question (yes tinfoil hat required).
    0 0

You need to be logged in to post a comment. Login via the left margin or if you're new, register here.



The Consensus Project Website

THE ESCALATOR

(free to republish)


© Copyright 2024 John Cook
Home | Translations | About Us | Privacy | Contact Us