Grist: The right’s climate denialism is part of something much larger

[marmar]

The right’s climate denialism is part of something much larger
by David Roberts

9 Sep 2010 10:10 AM


If you read RL Miller's post on "climate zombies" you know that open climate denialism is back in vogue in the GOP. However muted denialism may have gotten in the late 2000s, it has come roaring back -- like everything reactionary -- with the economic downturn. This is from Gallup:



For the most part the American public's feelings on climate change are shallow, sloshing around with the economic and political tides. When people are feeling safer and more prosperous, climate scientists will magically become more persuasive.

As for the professional skeptics and culture warriors, there's little point hashing out the same arguments with them again and again. I have long since abandoned it. Many people do it well and G*d bless them but I've had my fill of sunspots and medieval warming periods and Pacific Decadal Oscillations. Ideological trench warfare is wearisome and there are many other issues in dire need of attention, principally how we're going to respond to climate change. That's a conversation that engages people outside the armed camps.

However! It does seem to me that the right's climate denialism hasn't been properly linked to the larger phenomenon of epistemic closure on the right. When Jim Manzi, everyone's favorite sensible conservative, criticized fellow conservative Mark Levin for peddling intellectually shoddy skeptic arguments in his bestselling book Liberty and Tyranny, Levin went nuts, joined by a half-dozen other NRO writers. How could they not? The very same skeptic talking points in Levin's book appear in thousands of blogs and comment sections across the interwebs. If they are intellectually bankrupt, a whole lot of people are going to look stupid. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-09-the-rights-climate-denialism-is-part-of-something-much-larger/

[G_j]

1. Another chart for ya..

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/01/97_of_active_climatologists_ag.php

97% of active climatologists agree that human activity is causing global warming

Category: Global Warming
Posted on: January 20, 2009 9:37 AM, by Tim Lambert

Eos has just published the results of a survey of 3146 Earth Scientists conducted by Peter Doran and Maggie Kendall Zimmerman. The graph below shows the results for this question:

Do you think human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures?

[SpiralHawk]

2. Good insights - the k and the r

"“...The decline in trust in institutions has generated fear and uncertainty, to which people generally respond by placing their trust in protective authorities. And some subset of people respond with tribalism, nationalism, and xenophobia. The right stokes and exploits modern anxiety relentlessly, but that's not all they do. They also offer a space to huddle in safety among the like-minded.

“The conservative movement in America has created a self-contained, hermetically sealed epistemological reality -- a closed-loop system of cable news, talk radio, and email forwards -- designed not just as a source of alternative facts but as an identity. That's why when you question climate skepticism you catch hell. You're messing with who people are....

[nashville_brook]

3. it's a facet of a larger anti-intellectualism (journos, teachers, scientists = BAD!)

all hail the idiocracy!

(OW! my balls!)

[jimlup]

4. Further evidence (not that we need it) that liberalism is correlated with understanding

Seems they are absolutely intellectually bankrupt.

[philly_bob]

5. How many know what "epistemic" (used in OP) means?

I didn't. Turns out it's derived from "epistemology" the study of how we know:

1. of or relating to knowledge or epistemology
2. See also doxastic denoting the branch of modal logic that deals with the formalization of certain epistemological concepts, such as knowledge, certainty, and ignorance.



But Grist dude, I had to look it up. Don't you think using pretty specialized language limits your audience? (Otherwise I agree with OP.)

[xchrom]

6. Recommend -- conservatism seeking to conserve

Only itself and various holy wars.

Holy wars on climate.

Holy wars on government

Holy wars on abortion

And on and on.