The persistence of climate change denial
Public opinion polls show that a majority of the American people now accept that anthropogenic climate change is underway, yet denial persists in many quarters, including the leadership of the Republican party.
Professor Naomi Oreskes will explain the roots of American climate change denial, why it has been so persistent, and what, if anything, might be done about it.
Naomi Oreskes is a Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She is the author of numerous books, articles, and opinion pieces.
Her most recent books are Merchants of Doubt (Bloomsbury, 2010), which was short-listed for the Los Angeles Times book prize and released as a documentary film by the same name in 2015, and The Collapse of Western Civilization (Columbia University Press, 2014), both co-authored with Erik M. Conway.
She also wrote the Introduction to the Melville House edition of the Papal Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality, and, with John Krige, edited Science and Technology in the Global Cold War (MIT Press, 2014). She has won numerous prizes and awards, including, most recently, the 2014 American Geophysical Union Presidential Citation for Science and Society and the 2015 Herbert Feis Prize of the American Historical Association for her contributions to public history.
Ole Wæver is the moderator for this lecture. He is a Professor of International Relations at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, founder of CAST, Centre for Advanced Security Theory, and Director of CRIC, Centre for Resolution of International Conflicts.