Effective strategies to counter campus presentations on climate denial

Abstract

Although 97%-98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field accept the basic tenets of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) findings [Anderegg et al., 2010], there is a consistent undercurrent of doubt among the general public (A. Leiserowitz et al., Global warming's six Americas in May 2011, online report, 57 pp., Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., 2011). To some extent, this doubt is fueled by high-profile climate change deniers who offer "the real view" of climate science [Oreskes and Conway, 2010]. Our campuses recently hosted two such speakers: Ivar Giaever at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and Christopher Monckton (also known as Lord Monckton) at Union College. (Monckton's presentation can be seen athttp://union.campusreform.org/group/blog/live-webinar-lord-monckton-at-union-college.)