How To Spot Climate Change Deniers
I love this blog post from the Guardian. It is a compilation of the yeoman’s work done over at the Denialism blog (and every bit of it is true) detailing how climate change deniers operate. As the author notes here, the markings of the climate change denialist, actually extend to any Grand Conspiracy Theorist — from the creationists to the 9/11 Truthers to the HIV deniers. You really should read the whole post (and follow the links for more exposition), but here are the signs:
- …the assertion of a conspiracy to suppress the truth. This conspiracy invariably fails to address or explain the data or observation but only generates more unexplained questions.
- …selectivity, or cherry-picking the data…harping on about long discredited theories and the medieval warming period ad nauseum…
- …the use of fake experts…the same hacks who used to deny that cigarettes cause cancer for the tobacco companies, others are scientists who are wrongly included because they said something that was quoted out of context, others simply have no credibility as experts on climate like TV weathermen. But the desire of denialists to gain legitimacy by the numbers of scientists (or whoever they can find with letters after their name) used remains despite their contempt for the science they disagree with…
- …moving goalposts or impossible expectations – is the tendency to refuse to accept when denialists’ challenges to the science have been addressed. Instead, they just come up with new challenges for you to prove before they say they’ll believe the theory. Worse, they just repeat their challenges over and over again ad nauseum…
- …the catch-all of logical fallacies. You know you’ve heard them. Al Gore is fat! His house uses lots of energy! Evolutionary biologists are mean! God of the gaps, reasoning by analogy, ad hominem, you name it, these arguments, while emotionally appealing, have no impact on the validity of the science…
You’ve seen these tactics in use over and over again, and you’d think that there would be a point where the individual displaying his or her ignorance for all to see would start to learn something. But I suppose we should never underestimate the need of folks to hang on to their delusions. Especially when those delusions are specifically created by a party hell bent on damaging all of us just so that they can keep up the lobbying on behalf of oil and coal and gas interests.
Tags: Climate Change
I’m kinda depressed about the whole thing right now. The science will eventually win the day, as it always has but the denialists throw enough sand in everyone’s face to make action be too late or too inadequate. It’s depressingly regular.
I guess I’m just depressed because I got into a mini-argument on FB about torture. This jerkwad just gave the normal “Bush kept us safe,” “liberals care about terrorist rights, “torture works and they’re bad people” arguments. It’s just bringing me down.
I know for my own mental health that I can’t obsess on things I can’t control and can’t change but the worst of human nature just sometimes gets me down.
TV weatherpersons have no credibility? And just who did you listen to during the Bush Dark Ages? (also referred to as the “Bark Ages”)
Weather isn’t climate. A B.S. in meteorology and broadcasting doesn’t make you a scientist.
Reis hits #3 and #5 on the list.