1. Communicating Climate Science & Countering Disinformation
CLEAN Climate Workshop
Communicating Climate Science
& Countering Disinformation
John Cook

4. “If you can't explain your physics to a barmaid, it is probably not
very good physics.”
ERNST RUTHERFORD

7. iPhone App
“The pocket-sized miracle that you always wish you had during a climate change conversation gone awry.”
World Wildlife Fund

8. “A major contribution to the growing body of well-reasoned analyses of climate change denial.”
Riley Dunlap, Professor of Sociology, Oklahoma State University
“The best available guide to recognizing and combating climate change denial.”
Spencer Weart, author of The Discovery of Global Warming

11. Roadblocks to understanding
climate change

12. Roadblocks to understanding
climate change
External Roadblocks
Disinformation campaign

14. Roadblocks to understanding
climate change
External Roadblocks
Disinformation campaign
Mainstream media

16. Roadblocks to understanding
climate change
External Roadblocks
Disinformation campaign
Mainstream media
Internal Roadblocks
Ideology

18. Roadblocks to understanding
climate change
External Roadblocks
Disinformation campaign
Mainstream media
Internal Roadblocks
Ideology
Finite Pool of Worry

19. Roadblocks to understanding
climate change
External Roadblocks
Disinformation campaign
Mainstream media
Internal Roadblocks
Ideology
Finite Pool of Worry
Aversion to doom & gloom

20. The Psychology of Climate Change
Human psychology is not rocket science…

21. The Psychology of Climate Change
Human psychology is not rocket science…
…it’s much more complicated.

22. Schwarz et al 2007
The “backfire effect” – trying to debunk a myth can reinforce it in people’s minds

23. Schwarz et al 2007
The “backfire effect” – trying to debunk a myth can reinforce it in people’s minds
Solution: emphasis on facts rather than myth

24. Example: Guide to Skepticism http://sks.to/guide

25. Seifert 2002
Most effective way to dislodge misinformation is to replace it with an alternative narrative

26. Seifert 2002
Most effective way to dislodge misinformation is to replace it with an alternative narrative
People think in stories, narratives & metaphors

27. Debunking a Climate Myth
“Nature produces nearly all of the carbon dioxide in the air. Human beings produce point 001 percent of the carbon dioxide in the air.”
ALAN JONES

31. 5 characteristics of denial
Diethelm & McKee 2007
All movements that deny a scientific consensus have 5 characteristics in common

32. 5 characteristics of denial
Cherry Picking

36. 5 characteristics of denial
Cherry Picking
Fake Experts

38. The OISM Petition Project

39. 5 characteristics of denial
Cherry Picking
Fake Experts
Impossible Expectations

40. Our understanding of the
Greenhouse Warming

41. 5 characteristics of denial
Cherry Picking
Fake Experts
Impossible Expectations
Misrepresentation & Logical fallacies

42. “Climate has changed in the past”

45. 5 characteristics of denial
Cherry Picking
Fake Experts
Impossible Expectations
Misrepresentation & Logical fallacies
Conspiracy Theories

46. “Climategate”

48. 5 characteristics of denial
Cherry Picking
Fake Experts
Impossible Expectations
Misrepresentation & Logical fallacies
Conspiracy Theories
Denying
the full body
of evidence