June 26, 2023

Climate Change Denial part 1: Science Friction

52 minutes

Uncovering the hidden histories of concepts, people and events you thought you knew.

This time: Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey try to cool their tempers as they take on climate change denial. They trace denial’s journey from fossil-fuel lobbyists and neoliberal think tanks into the heart of the mainstream media and lay out the dire consequences.

In this first part Ian and Dorian discuss how global warming grew from a minor nineteenth-century hypothesis into the consensus scientific position by the eco-conscious 1970s. Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House and even Margaret Thatcher was worried about carbon emissions. Starting in 1988, though, contrarian scientists, lobbyists and right-wing politicians weaponised scepticism to ensure that nothing was done about it. Also: how discredited panics about overpopulation and a new ice age helped to fuel the politics of denial.

Conspiracy theories, culture wars, pseudo-science and media credulity come together in the story of one of the greatest scandals of modern times.

Hear Part Two right now when you support Origin Story on Patreon: www.Patreon.com/originstorypod

Tickets for the Origin Story live show are available now: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZwCihZbENZ

“It is extraordinary how far back this goes…there’s cross-party recognition of man-made climate change in the 1960’s.” – Ian Dunt

“It’s incredible that the Clean Air Act actually makes global warming worse.” – Dorian Lynskey

“It’s the same technique as McCarthy, used again and again.” – Ian Dunt

Reading List:

Michael Crichton – State of Fear

Ross Gelbspan – The Heat Is On: The High Stakes Battle Over Earth’s Threatened Climate

Clive Hamilton – Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth About Climate Change

Bjorn Lomborg – The Skeptical Environmentalist

Chris Mooney – The Republican War on Science

Thomas Gale Moore – Climate of Fear: Why We Shouldn’t Worry About Global Warming

Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway – Merchants of Doubt

Nathaniel Rich – Losing Earth: The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate Change

Peter Stott – Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial

The Great Global Warming Swindle (Channel 4)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYhCQv5tNsQ

Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Audio production and music by Jade Bailey. Logo art by Mischa Welsh. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production.

https://twitter.com/OriginStorycast

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