Authors
Núria Almiron
Publication date
2020
Journal
Climate change denial and public relations
Pages
9
Description
Climate change denial can be roughly defined as the stance that advocates against the evidence posited for human-induced global warming. This stance has become such a powerful and organized force in the United States that it has been labeled a denial machine–a public relations engine made up of a “loose coalition of industrial (especially fossil fuels) interests and conservative foundations and think tanks that utilize a range of front groups and Astroturf operations, often assisted by a small number of ‘contrarian scientists’”, who are “greatly aided by conservative media and politicians... and more recently by a bevy of skeptical bloggers”(Dunlap, 2013, p. 692). The climate change denial machine has been accurately compared with the denial campaign launched by the tobacco industry in the mid-20th century (Oreskes & Conway, 2011). However, the outcome and impact of the climate change denial effort are bigger and go beyond the United States. This is so because of the higher degree of globalization of capitalist interests in place since the late 20th century, when the climate change denial machine was created, making it easier for transnational interests to interact and cooperate with each other and even build international coalitions of interest groups. In the EU, for instance, where denial forces are relevant but do not reach the magnitude of a denial machine, policies for climate mitigation recurrently encounter obstacles posed by industries that, either aligned or in competition with their US counterparts, share with the US industrial sectors the same reluctance towards and fear of change (mainly when change is not driven for profit). In this …
Total citations
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