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The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History pp 149–171Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Denial of Global Warming

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Abstract

No book about the science of climate reconstruction would be complete if it did not also address the organized efforts to reject and obfuscate that science. This chapter begins with passages adapted from Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (2010), which were kindly shared by the authors and publisher. This path-breaking work uncovered links among the tactics and agents involved in organized efforts to cast doubt and disrepute on research and researchers who have demonstrated how certain profitable enterprises have negative health and environmental externalities. Here, we have extended Oreskes and Conway’s account with a discussion of global warming denial in Europe and in Australia.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Roach, 2004.

  2. 2.

    Solomon et al., 2007, 8.

  3. 3.

    Oreskes, 2004, 1686.

  4. 4.

    Time, March 26, 2006. Contrast this with the results of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report, which states unequivocally that average global temperatures have risen. IPCC, 2001.

  5. 5.

    Langer, 2006. For a related poll, see also Pew Center, July 12, 2006.

  6. 6.

    Fleming, 1998, 2007; Weart, 2008.

  7. 7.

    Kerr, 1989, 1041–43.

  8. 8.

    Jastrow et al., 1990.

  9. 9.

    Roberts, 1989, 992–93.

  10. 10.

    Roberts, 1989, 992–93.

  11. 11.

    Roberts, 1989, 992–93.

  12. 12.

    Houghton et al., 1990; see also Weisskopf and Booth, May 26, 1990, 1.

  13. 13.

    Houghton et al., 1990, 63.

  14. 14.

    Bolin, 2007, 72; Nierenberg described the Marshall Institute’s estimate as climate sensitive (1991, 10).

  15. 15.

    Deborah Day, personal communication with Naomi Oreskes 2008.

  16. 16.

    Bill Kristol to Sam Skinner et al., Attachment—Chart B, April 23, 1992, Jeffrey Holmstead, file “Global Warming Implications,” OA/ID CF01875, Counsels Office, George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, College Station, Texas.

  17. 17.

    Robert Jastrow to Terry Yosle, February 22, 1991, WAN papers, Accession 2001-01, 60: file label “Marshall Institute Correspondence, 1990–1992,” SIO Archives.

  18. 18.

    United Nations, 1992; “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” UNFCC, http://unfccc.int/2860.php (accessed July 4, 2009).

  19. 19.

    Bush, 1993, 924–25.

  20. 20.

    Ramanathan, 1988, 293–99.

  21. 21.

    Santer et al., 1994, 267–85, 1995, 10693–726, 1996, 77–100; Santer and Taylor, 1996, 39–46.

  22. 22.

    Santer and Taylor, 1996, 39–46; Santer writes: “I checked on this. We submitted our paper to Nature in April 1995.” Benjamin Santer, email communication with Naomi Oreskes, October 4, 2009; Santer, interview with Conway, February 20, 2009; Houghton, 1996.

  23. 23.

    Michael Oppenheimer as quoted in Stevens, 1999.

  24. 24.

    IPCC Second Assessment Report; Bolin, 2007.

  25. 25.

    Stevens, 1999; Stevens, September 10, 1995.

  26. 26.

    Jaquith, August 10, 2006.

  27. 27.

    Michaels, 1984, 143–56, 1983, 1296–303.

  28. 28.

    Michaels, 1991, 1992.

  29. 29.

    New Hope Environmental Services, http://www.nhes.com/ (accessed October 9, 2009); see discussion in Gelbspan, 1997, 41–43; Oreskes, 2011. According to Gelbspan, Michaels’ publication started as World Climate Review, then became World Climate Report.

  30. 30.

    Oreskes, 2011.

  31. 31.

    Bill Nierenberg to Fred Seitz (handwritten), November 27, 1995, WAN papers, Accession 2001-01, 70: file label “Frederick Seitz, 1994–1995,” SIO Archives; Schneider and Edwards, 2001, 219–96; Bolin, 2007, 113; Stevens, 1999, 229; Santer interview with Conway, February 20, 2009.

  32. 32.

    Singer, 1996a.

  33. 33.

    Wigley and Singer, 1996, 1481–82.

  34. 34.

    Wigley and Singer, 1996, 1481–82.

  35. 35.

    Gelbspan, 1997; Leggett, 2001. On Pearlman, see Gelbspan, 1997, 119–20.

  36. 36.

    Stevens, 1999, 231.

  37. 37.

    Santer interview with Conway, February 20, 2009.

  38. 38.

    Santer interview with Conway, February 20, 2009.

  39. 39.

    Lahsen, 1999, 111–36.

  40. 40.

    Seitz, June 12, 1996.

  41. 41.

    Avery et al., 1996, 1961–65.

  42. 42.

    Avery et al., 1996, 1963–65.

  43. 43.

    Avery et al., 1996, 1966.

  44. 44.

    Avery et al., 1996, 1961–65.

  45. 45.

    Avery et al., 1996, 1961; see also Bolin, 2007, 129.

  46. 46.

    Singer, July 11, 1996b; see also letters by Frederick Seitz and Hugh Ellsaesser in the same section.

  47. 47.

    Santer, July 23, 1996; see also letter by Bert Bolin and John Houghton in the same section.

  48. 48.

    Gelbspan reprinted this email exchange: Gelbspan, 1997, 230–36.

  49. 49.

    Faxed copy of statement in: Edward Frieman papers, MC 77, 123:7, SIO Archives; see also Mooney, 2005, 62–64.

  50. 50.

    McCright and Dunlap, 2003; Byrd-Hagel Resolution, July 25, 1997, The National Center for Public Policy Research, http://www.nationalcenter.org/KyotoSenate.html (accessed July 1, 2009).

  51. 51.

    James M. Inhofe, “Climate Change Update: Senate Floor Statement by US Senator James M. Inhofe,” January 4, 2005, Floor Speeches, http://inhofe.senate.gov/pressreleases/climateupdate.htm (accessed February 19, 2007).

  52. 52.

    Cheney, 2007.

  53. 53.

    Seidel, 1995; Edwards, 1996; Sontag et al., 1998; Craven, 2001; Westwick, 2003; Oreskes, forthcoming.

  54. 54.

    Hays and Hays, 1987, 491. Rothman prefers to call it a backlash: Rothman, 2000, 158.

  55. 55.

    https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/publications/2006/royal-society-exxonmobil/; https://royalsociety.org/~/media/Royal_Society_Content/policy/publications/2006/8257.pdf.

  56. 56.

    Banerjee et al., 2015.

  57. 57.

    http://exxonsecrets.org/em.php, accessed November 1, 2015.

  58. 58.

    Jacques et al., 2008, 349–85.

  59. 59.

    Orwell, 1949.

  60. 60.

    Linden, 2006, 222–23.

  61. 61.

    Weingart et al., 2000.

  62. 62.

    Flohn, 1981, 190.

  63. 63.

    Hulme and Turnpenny, 2004.

  64. 64.

    Neu, 2009.

  65. 65.

    Poortinga et al., 2011.

  66. 66.

    Rahmstorf and Schellnhuber, 2007; http://www.tobaccotactics.org/index.php/European_Science_and_Environment_Forum.

  67. 67.

    Lomborg, 2001, 2007.

  68. 68.

    Jowit, 2010.

  69. 69.

    Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, 2004; Oreskes, 2011.

  70. 70.

    Brand and Pawloff, 2014.

  71. 71.

    CONTRA, http://projects.fas.at/CONTRA/; Engels et al., 2013.

  72. 72.

    Talberg et al., 2015; Hamilton, 2007.

  73. 73.

    Pearman, 1988.

  74. 74.

    Talberg et al., 2015.

  75. 75.

    Talberg et al., 2015.

  76. 76.

    Hamilton, 2007.

  77. 77.

    Lavoisier Group, http://www.lavoisier.com.au/index.php; Enting, 2011.

  78. 78.

    Galileo Movement, http://www.galileomovement.com.au/galileo_movement.php.

  79. 79.

    Manne, 2011.

  80. 80.

    Pearse et al., 2013.

  81. 81.

    https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09.pdf.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. History of Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Naomi Oreskes

  2. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Erik Conway

  3. School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    David J. Karoly & Joelle Gergis

  4. Swiss Academy of Sciences, Bern, Switzerland

    Urs Neu

  5. Institute of History, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change, Bern, Switzerland

    Christian Pfister

Authors
  1. Naomi Oreskes
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  2. Erik Conway
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  3. David J. Karoly
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  4. Joelle Gergis
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  5. Urs Neu
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Sam White

  2. Institute of History, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change, Bern, Switzerland

    Christian Pfister

  3. Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Franz Mauelshagen

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Oreskes, N., Conway, E., Karoly, D.J., Gergis, J., Neu, U., Pfister, C. (2018). The Denial of Global Warming. In: White, S., Pfister, C., Mauelshagen, F. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43020-5_14

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