{"id":316308,"date":"2024-04-04T08:38:36","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T06:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=316308"},"modified":"2024-04-04T08:38:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T06:38:39","slug":"claim-questioning-attribution-studies-is-the-gateway-drug-to-climate-denial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=316308","title":{"rendered":"Claim: Questioning Attribution Studies is the \u201cGateway Drug\u201d to Climate Denial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by Eric Worrall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently \u201c\u2026 denialism is standing up for industrial capitalism. \u2026 poorly educated men (and to the regional communities built around them) \u2026\u201d are the drivers of modern climate denial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Never mind the science, News Corp has strengthened its climate denialism machine<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate crisis denial can come in many forms \u2014 and Murdoch\u2019s empire has all bases covered.
CHRISTOPHER WARREN<\/a>
APR 02, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The News Corp climate denial machine \u2014 all those cogs in its opinion pages finely tuned to reverse Aesop\u2019s fable and repeatedly croak out: \u201cNo wolf here!\u201d \u2014 has a problem. Extreme weather events have made it all but impossible to ignore the climate wolf threatening to blow our houses down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve reengineered the underlying denialism, too. Sure, they say now, the climate may be changing, but it\u2019s not our fault. It\u2019s not, as the cloistered academics would say, \u201canthropogenic\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If global heating is not caused by humans burning fossil fuels, why would humans be able to do anything about it? (And, just in case, why not go, umm, nukular<\/em>?<\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAttribution\u201d has always been the weakest form of denialism, raising doubts rather than definitively rejecting. But as a recent US study found<\/a>, its danger lies in being the gateway drug to a more full-blown repudiation of the science itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did climate denial suddenly become a touchstone for the global right?  \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 It\u2019s been tagged \u201cthe anti-reflexivity thesis<\/a>\u201c, which is the argument that denialism is standing up for industrial capitalism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appeals to a certain old-style machismo \u2014 the good ol\u2019 days of physical, manual jobs that matter for poorly educated men (and to the regional communities built around them).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/www.crikey.com.au\/2024\/04\/02\/news-corp-climate-change-denial-machine\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The person who wrote this vile outpouring of ignorance and contempt for rural people and people who work with their hands is a former president of the International Federation of Journalists<\/strong> \u2013 which in my opinion goes a long way towards explaining why large sectors of society don\u2019t trust establishment media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate attribution studies are far from beyond question. They purport to explain how much climate change contributes to weather, but doubts have been raised about the methodology, including concerns about serious mathematical biases in the method used to tease the alleged climate impact from the data.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christopher Warren implies advocacy of nuclear energy is an expression of industrial capitalist supporter ignorance, but real ignorance is denying that nuclear energy is a serious option. Nuclear works in france, which still generates around 70% of their electricity from affordable zero carbon nuclear.<\/a> Are the French much smarter than everyone else on the planet? Or is copying the French nuclear success something any advanced nation could reasonably attempt to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the idea that climate denial is motivated by irrational support for industrial capitalism is the crowning absurdity of Christopher\u2019s article. From a study referenced by the article;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Anti-Reflexivity and Climate Change Skepticism in the US General Public<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aaron M. McCright Lyman Briggs College and Department of Sociology Michigan State University, Michigan, United States<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leading theoretical explanation for the mobilization of organized climate change denial is the Anti-Reflexivity Thesis, which characterizes the climate change denial countermovement as a collective force defending the industrial capitalist system. In this study, I demonstrate that the Anti-Reflexivity Thesis also provides theoretical purchase for explaining patterns of climate change skepticism among regular citizens. Analyzing nationally representative survey data from multiple waves of the University of Texas Energy Poll, I examine key predictors of climate change skepticism within the US general public. Identification with or trust in groups representing the industrial capitalist system increases the likelihood of climate change skepticism.<\/strong> Also, identification with or trust in groups representing forces of reflexivity (e.g., the environmental movement and scientific community) decreases the likelihood of such skepticism. Further, this study finds that climate change skeptics report policy preferences, voting intentions, and behavioral intentions generally supportive of the existing fossil fuels\u2013based industrial capitalist system.Read more: https:\/\/search.informit.org\/doi\/epdf\/10.3316\/informit.324791340628136<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The study above defines anti-reflexivity as \u201c\u2026 Reflexive Modernization Theory (e.g., Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1990; see also Rosa, Renn, & McCright, 2014) characterizes the current era of late modernity as a distinct stage of advanced industrial society where institutions suffer from legitimacy crises brought on by their inability to effectively solve the ecological and technological problems of modernization.<\/strong> \u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea, the \u201canti-reflexity thesis<\/a>\u201c, that opposition to climate policies comes from people who miss \u201cthe good old days\u201d, who have lost their jobs and way of life because of social and technological progress, this fiction runs deep in liberal circles. The idea has even made it into television series. The following is character Tom Kirkman from the series\u00a0\u201cDesignated Survivor\u201d<\/a>\u00a0explaining why industrial jobs are disappearing from the USA and will never return.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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