Climate Denialism

Abstract

Climate change imposes severe impacts on society and the economy. Solving this problem may require a major redesign of how available resources on our planet are exploited, and those changes induce resistance. Therefore, the general public and politicians welcome claims that climate change is not as bad as scientists conclude. An article in this issue by May and Crok casting doubt on the conclusions of climate science was submitted to this journal and apparently passed peer review. On that basis, the authors claim authority and a high status for their article in posts on social media. However, there are serious problems with this article. It applies a number of logical fallacies frequently used by climate denialists. Rather than debunking all of these fallacies, the present article uses the one by May and Crok to showcase several of these fallacies. These include examples of rhetorical tricks denialists frequently use to cast doubt on the major findings of climate science such as use of fake experts, cherry picking, creating false expectations, and misrepresentations of available understanding.