Climate change denial
Denial about the climate and ecological emergencies is putting the safety and survival of humanity and other forms of life on earth at risk. Denial ranges from completely rejecting the science to accepting it, but continuing to live in a fog of toxic positivity, inaction, and distraction.
Media denial is especially dangerous. The media is responsible for acting as a gatekeeper between political and corporate powers and the public to ensure that politicians and big business are held to account if they fail to protect constituents and consumers. They are also responsible for educating the public about crises; but most outlets are failing to adequately cover the climate emergency and make the connection between increasingly extreme weather events and human-caused climate change.
Read a round-up of the headlines:
“But this means lobbying has changed, now employing more subtle and more vicious approaches – what has been termed as “climate sadism”. It is used to mock young people going on climate protests and to ridicule Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old young woman with Asperger’s, who is simply telling the scientific truth.
At such a crossroads, it is important to be able to identify the different types of denial. The below taxonomy will help you spot the different ways that are being used to convince you to delay action on climate change…
The fundamental question is why are we allowing the people with the most privilege and power to convince us to delay saving our planet from climate change?”
The Conversation, The five corrupt pillars of climate change denial
“This is a common story among researchers covering the climate crisis and systems change. Their work may be peer-reviewed but the world doesn’t want to know—or, rather, the media doesn’t, and thus the world never gets to. Why?
It could be that concepts like degrowth are anathema in a status quo dedicated to capitalism, that raising the question of how many human lives we can sustain on the planet is too frightening (and a direct attack on individual liberty, capitalism’s favourite strawman), that highlighting the finite planet vs infinite appetite doesn’t appeal to the ravenous, self-styled masters of the universe.”
Byline Times, ‘Isn’t Journalism about Finding New Stories?’: The Climate News the Media Ignores
More Reading
George Monbiot, How The Media Stopped Us Caring About the Planet
Global Issues, Crisis? What Crisis? Media Failing to Convey the Urgency of the Climate Emergency
Columbia Journalism Review, In 2023, the climate story is more urgent than ever. Will journalists rise to meet the moment?