Climate Denial: What It Is and Why it Happens

By Ben Choucroun, WELLKIND Forestry Intern

Ben Choucroun was an intern for WELLKIND Forestry during our summer 2021 session, exploring gaps in the media’s coverage of climate change and other important environmental issues.

Climate change is rapidly becoming one of the foremost issues of the 21st century. Already, it has caused floods and fires of intensities not seen in thousands of years. This isn’t my opinion—it’s a fact, and one supported by the scientific community as a whole. In fact, out of all the peer-reviewed papers on climate change and global warming, not one argues against it.

The effects of climate change will only worsen if we do not take immediate action. In The 2084 Report: An Oral History of the Great Warming, Dr. James Powell, a world-renowned scientist who served on the National Science Council, urged for immediate action against climate change. However, according to a study by the Pew Research Center, many people oppose taking immediate action against climate change, or dispute the fact of climate change altogether (Funk and Hefferon, 2019). Which begs the question: why?

Yet again, Dr. Powell has the answer:

“There are a group of scientists who are opposed to it for ideological reasons. So they say there’s no consensus, and scientists don’t agree.”

This is certainly the case. One example of an ideological reason is that their religion tells them that climate change does not exist. Or, that they are in denial about climate change. Though there is scientific consensus on climate change, there are still some scientists, like Steven E. Koonin, who claim it doesn’t exist.

Voices like Koonin’s are sadly amplified by many media outlets. Most news organizations will attempt to publish both sides of a story, so that they can have a balanced take. However, on issues such as climate change, which doesn’t really have two sides, this can lead to “false balance” in which the presence of an equal number of climate change proponents and deniers can leave viewers with the false impression that the scientific community is split on the issue of climate change.

For example, in a recent news article, Fox News broadcasted only the opinion of Angelica Stabile, a climate denier. This might leave Fox’s 2.166 million viewers with the false impression that climate change doesn’t exist—despite the fact that it clearly does.

How do we fix this issue? The answer is to make it perfectly clear that climate change is supported by the scientific community, and to not have an equal number of climate proponents and deniers. A great example would be an article by the New York Times.

The Times’ climate coverage is far from perfect. They often don’t show very many important facts about climate change, such as its imminenty and source (Romps, 2019). However, this article makes it perfectly clear that climate denial is a viewpoint that has been thoroughly rejected by the scientific community. They noted:

“This means, he said, the solution lies not in persuading those already steeped in science denial, but in inoculating the other 90 percent of the public from scientific disinformation.”

Climate change denial is one of the major issues facing us in our efforts to combat climate change—and one we must work hard to overcome.

Climate Denial: What It Is and Why it Happens

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