Climate change denialism fascinates me. How does one become a denialist in the face of scientific consensus? Having talked to people who exhibit various levels of denial and scepticism my hunch is that it’s an inherit psychological defect of humans. People can’t bring themselves to accept that they might be partly responsible for a crime of such enormity, so they deny. A classic psychological response.
But while this might explain why so many are ready and willing to be duped into thinking man-made climate change is a conspiracy, it doesn’t seem to explain why so many are duped. Turns out there’s an explanation for that:
Think environmentalists are stooges? You’re the unwitting recruit of a hugely powerful oil lobby – I’ve got the proof.
I have placed on the Guardian’s website four case studies; each of which provides a shocking example of how the denial industry works.
Remember this the next time you hear people claiming that climate scientists are only in it for the money, or that environmentalists are trying to create a communist world government: these ideas were devised and broadcast by energy companies. The people who inform me, apparently without irony, that “your article is an ad hominem attack, you four-eyed, big-nosed, commie sack of shit”, or “you scaremongers will destroy the entire world economy and take us back to the Stone Age”, are the unwitting recruits of campaigns they have never heard of.
