Global warming denial

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Overview

Global warming denial is denial that global warming (GW) is a problem (or, in some cases, denial that anything should be done about it) using arguments which have already been refuted.

It seems to be a problem mostly in non-scientific establishment circles within the United States.

There are a few legitimate-appearing arguments against global warming which have not yet been addressed; some of these are already-refuted arguments in modified form dredged up for public consumption by very well-funded anti-GW interests, but some may be genuine.

Techniques

ignoring refutation

GW deniers often reiterate otherwise-legitimate arguments which have already been refuted, dishonestly repeating them as if those arguments had not yet been addressed.

false dilemma

One of the techniques used by GW deniers is to reduce the problem to an all-or-nothing false dilemma – either:

• GW exists and we are causing it and we should take draconian measures to stop it, or else
• GW doesn't exist; if it does, it's not our fault; if it's our fault, there's either nothing we can do about it; if there's something we could do about it, the effects won't be that bad if we don't so it's really not worth the fuss.

Any flaws found in the pro-GW fork become, to them, arguments against the whole thing – making this effectively a straw man misrepresentation of global warming advocacy.

winner-take-all thinking

GW deniers tend to take a combative approach to the discussion, trying to undermine GW's credibility without actually addressing the matters of fact it raises; this is in turn fed upon and encouraged by those who like to keep debates stirred up rather than seeking to resolve them.

To counter this, GW proponents might make a set of specific proposals regarding what should be done under various conditions, where the conditions are stated in terms which can be measured. For example, "If a forecast is made which everyone agrees was done using sound methodology, and that forecast shows global temperatures averaging more than 5 degrees above normal over the next 25 years, then we as should be willing to spend at least X dollars of global resources, divided proportionally among the signatory countries by GNP, towards either reversing the temperature change itself or at least ameliorating the effects of said change on the most vulnerable members of our global habitat (to be divided amongst humans and non-humans according to a formula set out in Appendix C etc. etc.)"

Although the core GW deniers might carefully overlook these proposals and shift the debate back to their preferred grounds, it could help clarify the situation for people who are honestly confused about the issue.

irrelevant accusations

GW deniers often accuse GW advocates of being "alarmists" or fearmongers. This is a bogus accusation on the following levels:

• It again deflects attention away from a discussion of the facts (which could be resolved) into a claim of nefarious motives, which is not relevant when the accused have presented extensive facts to back up their assertions.
• Fearmongery is only a valid accusation when fear is being used to get people to obey or support a particular group or individual (a technique used shamelessly by the anti-GW Bush II administration). This accusation is more difficult to deflect, though it seems clearly wrong to me. -W..

Denialism Whistleblowers

• James Hansen, "NASA's top climatologist", has claimed in writing and on TV that the Bush-Cheney administration has tried to restrict and suppress discussion of global warming (hardly surprising, as they are anti-science in general).

Denialist Projects

• Blowing Our Tax Dollars on Wind Farms
• ClimateCheck.org (UK)
• Cooler Heads blog
• Cornwall Alliance
• Global Warming Hoax: "Refuting the Myth of Man-made Global Warming" .. "Arguments based on science, news, and common sense. This site is non-partisan and non-religious based. In fact we fight the new faith based religion of global warming."
• GlobalWarmingInsanity.com
• Heartland Institute
• Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine
• Science and Environmental Policy Project
• Science and Public Policy Institute
• Space and Science Research Center
• surfacestations.org

Links

Reference

• Wikipedia (Climate change denial)
• Conservapedia (GW denial): very brief page claiming that GW is a political tool of "a powerful liberal special interest group: the environmental lobby." (Who funds the environmental lobby? Who makes money from environmentalism?)
  • Global Warming frames the debate as largely political, with the data not supporting the idea that there's anything to worry about (as of 2007-08-04; verified 2008-02-10)
• dKosopedia (no article as of 2008-02-10)
• SourceWatch (no article as of 2008-02-10)

filed links

version 2

• 2010-07-09 [Talk|Index] The greatest science "scandal" "in the history of man" predictably falls apart § “Last year, conservative climate change skeptics, in the words of Wall Street Journal's Kimberly Strassel, thought they had found a "gold mine." Conservative media figures seized on emails stolen from climate scientists and proceeded to completely distort their contents. As we pointed out repeatedly at the time, this "scandal" relied on outrageous misrepresentations of the stolen emails and did not in any way undermine the scientific consensus about climate change.”
• 2010-03-27 [Talk|Index] Unsettling the Settled Science § “Problems with a California temperature monitoring station represent in microcosm why the supposedly settled issue of climate change has become so unsettled in the last few months.”
• 2010-01-30 [Talk|Index] Twelve Simple Ways to Fight This Climate Change § “While we wait for Uncle Sam to take action — because after all, there's no question the global mean temperature is the province of the political class — that doesn't mean we can't do our part. ... There still are small, costly steps that we can take against this cold snap that can really make a difference:”
• 2009-12-16 [Talk|Index] Who are the climate change skeptics? § “...a 2008 study that examined 141 "English-language environmentally sceptical books published between 1972 and 2005" found that over 92% of them were connected to conservative think tanks, either published by them or authored by persons directly affiliated with them...”
• 2009-12-06 [Talk|Index] Climate of Uncertainty Heats Up § “Unlike Watergate, Climategate didn't come to light because investigative journalists ferreted out the truth. Instead, this story so far has played itself out largely on blogs, often run by the same scientists who had a hard time getting printed in the scientific journals. Climategate has provided a voice to the scientists who had been frozen out of the debate.”
• 2009-09-30 [Talk|Index] Cooling Down the Cassandras § “In this headline on a New York Times story about the difficulties confronting people alarmed about global warming, note the word "plateau." It dismisses the unpleasant – to some people – fact that global warming is maddeningly (to the same people) slow to vindicate their apocalyptic warnings about it.”
• 2009-09-21 [Talk|Index] Momentum on Climate Pact Is Elusive § “Scientists say the pattern of the last decade – after a precipitous rise in average global temperatures in the 1990s – is a result of cyclical variations in ocean conditions and has no bearing on the long-term warming effects of greenhouse gases building up in the atmosphere.” Possibly... but the overwhelming majority say just the opposite.
• 2009-06-27 [Talk|Index] Deniers § “If the left and right disagreed on how best to address policy challenges, that would at least open the door to constructive dialog. But we're still stuck in a political environment in which prominent conservative voices at high-profile conservative outlets a) don't recognize the difference between climate and weather; b) find meaningless anecdotes compelling evidence of global trends; and c) are entirely comfortable delaying necessary solutions while trying to continue an already-completed debate.”
• 2009-06-26 [Talk|Index] The Climate Change Climate Change § “The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N.”
• 2009-06-26 [Talk|Index] Global warming denial on Facebook § “So, I’m hanging out on Facebook today, and an old next-door dorm buddy posted a link to a crazy global-warming-is-a-hoax WSJ article. I replied, and things got wacky.”
• 2009-05-19 [Talk|Index] Global Warming’s Six Americas: An Audience Segmentation Analysis § “There are six unique segments of the American public that each engage with the issue of global warming in their own distinct way. Just over half of American adults (51 percent) are either Alarmed or Concerned about global warming, and these individuals are poised to vote on the issue with their pocket books and at the ballot box.”
• 2009-04-23 [Talk|Index] Industry Ignored Its Scientists on Climate § “a document filed in a federal lawsuit demonstrates that even as the coalition worked to sway opinion, its own scientific and technical experts were advising that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted.”
• 2009-03-27 [Talk|Index] Open Thread: Suggestions to Cancel Out Earth Day § “Second, the only possible result from not using electricity for one hour is an increase in energy costs. Think about it, if entire metro areas are participating in "earth hour," energy companies are going to be losing revenue. What else could they possibly do to make up for the lost revenue? Raise rates.”
• 2009-01-27 [Talk|Index] What's the take-home message of irreversible climate change? § “Is there a danger in pointing that we've already done "irreversible" damage to the ecological support system of the planet? Will that meme carry so much weight that people will just give up? Not that we shouldn't be exploring such avenues of research, but it's an important question to ask.”
• 2008-12-12 [Talk|Index] Climate denial as a phishing scam? § “John L. Casey appears to be a real individual with a history of creating factious fundraising organizations which only exist on paper, dummy Internet websites, mailing drops and telephone answering services.”
• 2008-12-10 [Talk|Index] More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims § Another global warming denial hack-job patching together quotes from reputable scientists to supposedly put the nail in the coffin of GW...
• 2008-11-25 [Talk|Index] The price of dissent on global warming § “According to official data, in every year since 1998, world temperatures have been getting colder, and in 2002 Arctic ice actually increased. Why, then, do we not hear about that?”
• 2008-11-20 [Talk|Index] Planet Has Cooled - Gore Admits "I've failed badly" - Global Sea Ice Grows § Mostly a collection of links claiming global warming is disproved by recent cooler weather, the climate has cooled since 2000, Al Gore admits failure...
• 2008-07-01 [Talk|Index] 58th Nobel Laureate Treffen Lindau 2008 Giaever Schellnhuber § video of Giaever's controversial comments on global warming at the 2008 Lindau meeting, with follow-up dialogue.
• 2008-04-09 [Talk|Index] Global warming mistakes have been made § “At the global climate change summit in Bali late last year, Dr Roy Spencer presented a paper to the IPCC, saying that rather than CO2 driving the formation of water vapour, which then drives up temperatures as a greenhouse gas, water vapour actually washes excess CO2 out of the atmosphere, dampening and balancing its [e]ffect as a greenhouse gas.”
• 2008-04-06 [Talk|Index] Uncommon cold is an antidote to warming fears § Based on snow records at a resort in Montana, “...it’s entirely possible that the generally warming temperatures of the past 20 years are part of a cyclical change that is not man-caused at all.”
• 2008-03-17 [Talk|Index] ECOworld: a website officially unconcerned about accuracy § “The "environmental publishing company" ECOworld promises to keep "nature and technology in harmony," but the content of the website and the clear bias of editor Ed (Redwood) Ring shows that Ed would be more forthright if he adopted a nickname that demonstrates more clearly his leanings, say Ed (We Need More Freeways) Ring.”
• 2008-03-02 [Talk|Index] Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate § a printed 40-page 8.5"x11" glossy booklet (downloadable as PDF), ostensibly presenting arguments against the anthropogenic origins of global warming
• 2008-02-22 [Talk|Index] Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us § “A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020.”
• 2008-02-20 [Talk|Index] Venice sea levels plunge to 14-year low § “Canals [in Venice, Italy] slipped on Monday to 80 centimetres below average sea level, the lowest since 1994, and remained at "Code White" levels on Tuesday.”
• 2007-12-21 [Talk|Index] Inhofe recycles unscientific attacks on global warming, NYT's Revkin gives him a pass § “"Padded" would be an extremely generous description of this list of "prominent scientists." Some would use the word "laughable".”
• 2007-12-20 [Talk|Index] U.S. Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007 § “Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called "consensus" on man-made global warming.”
• 2007-08-23 [Talk|Index] Lies, Conservatives and Statistics: Marc Morano's Fantasy § “Marc Morano has become one of the leading conservative figures speaking out against the idea of global warming -- at least, the idea that oil companies, mining firms, etc., should not be held accountable for making products that contribute to global warming.”
• 2007-08-05 [Talk|Index] Newsweek's Climate Editorial Screed Violates Basic Standards of Journalism § “Newsweek Magazine’s cover story of August 13, 2007 entitled, “The Truth About Denial” contains very little that could actually be considered balanced, objective or fair by journalistic standards.”
• 2007-05-02 [Talk|Index] From Papal Indulgences to Carbon Credits Is Global Warming a Sin? § “In a couple of hundred years, historians will be comparing the frenzies over our supposed human contribution to global warming to the tumults at the latter end of the tenth century as the Christian millennium approached.”
• 2006-06-28 [Talk|Index] Senate Committee Launches Taxpayer-Funded Misinformation Campaign About Gore Movie § “Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works issued a press release headlined "AP Incorrectly Claims Scientists Praise Gore's Movie." It doesn't substantiate the claim.”
• 2006-06-28 [Talk|Index] Inhofe's war on science § “Senator Inhofe ... has responded to the AP story on how top climate researchers say Gore got it right.” – and even the title is a straight lie.
• 2006-06-27 [Talk|Index] AP Incorrectly Claims Scientists Praise Gore's Movie § “The June 27, 2006 Associated Press (AP) article titled "Scientists OK Gore' Movie for Accuracy" by Seth Borenstein raises some serious questions about AP's bias and methodology.”

[refresh]

Anti-GW Sentiments

• Air Quality and Climate Change policy statement by the John Locke Foundation, a North Carolina conservative think-tank
  • 2008-03-20 It gets better and better includes the typical GW denialist sneering, but Woozle does some detailed critique of JLF's position

News & Views

• 2007-03-04 All in a Good Cause by Orson Scott Card: the story of the hoaxing of global warming, with links to a couple of books for supporting evidence (but nothing online); see global warming is junk science for details
• 2007-01-11 Federal Way schools restrict Gore film: 'Inconvenient Truth' called too controversial
• 2006-11-01 Scientists say White House muzzled them (alt)
• 2006-07-27
  • Cold, Hard Facts: op-ed by Peter Doran, a polar researcher whose paper on the Antarctic climate has often been misinterpreted (by e.g. Michael Crichton) as strong evidence of global cooling, or at least evidence against global warming
  • Leaked Memo Reveals Coal Industry Propaganda Plan
• 2006-07-20 The Heat Is On by Peggy Noonan seems to be blaming scientists for not having a firm consensus on the issue. Is this the signaling shot for a conservative attempt to shift the blame as the reality becomes inescapable?
• 2006-07-02 Don't Believe the Hype: "Al Gore is wrong. There's no 'consensus' on global warming." Umm... yes, there is? (need article about scientific consensus on global warming, I guess...)
• 2006-04-12 Climate of Fear by Richard Lindzen: "Global-warming alarmists intimidate dissenting scientists into silence" Yeah, right. It's those darn fascistic GW people trying to intimidate poor helpless oil and chemical companies into not polluting the atmosphere, for their own selfish purposes...
  • 2006-07-28 A response from Stefan Jones on Contrary Brin:

For twenty years you and the other faithful lapdogs of industry have dutifully parroted the sophistry fed to you by the fossil fuel crowd and by free-market ideologues. As the evidence mounted, you moved on to the next set of bogus arguments... and you blame scientists for being dishonest?

Also, the claim that there is no scientific consensus on global warming is a myth; see The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change

• 2006-01-30 Top climatologist accuses US of trying to gag him: James Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist, has accused the Bush administration of trying to stop him from speaking out after he called for swift cuts in emissions of the greenhouse gases linked to global warming...
• 2006-01 Decoder: "How the White House edits out global warming" by Paul Rauber

Debunking Myths

• Was an imminent Ice Age predicted in the '70s? No "If you can find me a reference saying otherwise, I'll put it here."