20110620_SL
Source: The Conversation
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8wVfxoPqPA
Date: 20/06/2011
Event: Stephan Lewandowsky on "the weird and wacky world of climate change denial"
Credit: The Conversation
People:
- Professor Stephan Lewandowsky: Cognitive psychologist
Stephan Lewandowsky: Hi, I'm Professor Stephan Lewandowsky from the University of Western Australia. Being a scientist, if I discovered the cure for cancer I would tell my colleagues about it, in the peer-reviewed literature. People who deny the overwhelming evidence that the Earth is warming due to human activities typically do not publish scientific articles. They instead publish elsewhere, for example, on the internet or in our national newspaper, The Australian. Why?
There's much research in cognitive science that shows that rejection of climate science is tied to an exaggerated belief in the free market as the solution to all of society's problems. In addition to those data, we can also rely on what climate deniers themselves state quite freely on the internet. For example, one contributor to the opinion pages of The Australian also recently stated on a New Zealand website - and I quote - "To win the political aspect of the climate debate, we have to lower the Western climate establishment's credibility with the layperson". The strategy is to undermine the credibility of the establishment climate scientists - that's all. There's nothing special, science-wise.
In other words, they know what they're doing. And it's not science. But why? Is an exaggerated belief in the invisible hand of the market sufficient for such brazen disregard of science? Almost, but not quite. It takes more than that, namely a belief in bizarre conspiracy theories.
Let's go back to our contributor to The Australian and examine some of his other public writings. I quote again: "There are a small number of families who, over the centuries, have amassed wealth through financial rent-seeking. They're leading members of the paper aristocracy. For example, the Rothschilds are the biggest banking family in Europe and were reputed to own half of all Western industry in 1900."
Rothschilds? Bankers running the world? Sound familiar? Corrupt climate scientists trying to create the New World Order? Sure... And MI6 killed Princess Diana, as well, and Prince Philip runs the world's drug trade. Ehh - are conspiracy theorists really the people who you want to trust, when it comes to the future of our children?