Why our brains are wired to ignore the climate crisis | All Hail The Planet

Summary

This video script delves into the psychological barriers hindering meaningful climate action, highlighting the '5Ds': psychological distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity. It discusses how fear, anxiety, and industry manipulation have clouded public understanding, leading to inaction. The script also examines the tactics used by the fossil fuel industry to sow doubt and delay, drawing parallels with past misinformation campaigns by the tobacco industry. The importance of effective science communication and storytelling is emphasized for rallying public support and countering misinformation.

Takeaways

• 🌍 The climate crisis is escalating, leading to devastating effects like millions of animals killed and severe weather events, which are directly impacting people and the planet.
• 🔥 Our dependence on fossil fuels is a major contributor to climate change, and there is a significant exploitation of natural resources that exacerbates the issue.
• 🤔 Public understanding of climate change is often warped by big industries, politicians, and media, leading to a lack of sufficient action to address the crisis.
• 🧠 Psychological factors play a significant role in how individuals process the climate crisis, with feelings of fear, anxiety, and helplessness being common responses.
• 📉 The '5Ds' (psychological distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity) are identified as barriers that prevent people from internalizing the urgency of climate change and taking meaningful action.
• 🕊️ Some individuals feel disconnected from the climate crisis due to its perceived distance in time and space, and the abstract nature of global issues.
• 📉 The 'cry wolf' effect reduces the impact of repeated warnings about doomsday scenarios, leading to avoidance behaviors and skepticism.
• 💭 Cognitive dissonance arises when there is a conflict between what people know about climate change and their daily actions, often resulting in justifications and blame-shifting.
• 🚫 Denial is a common psychological response that allows individuals to continue with their lives without confronting the reality of climate change.
• 🆔 Identity plays a crucial role in shaping people's attitudes towards climate change, with conflicts between personal values and scientific facts often leading to rejection of the latter.
• 💬 The script highlights the influence of misinformation campaigns by the fossil fuel industry, which have deliberately created doubt and confusion about climate change to delay action.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the video script discussing?

The main theme of the video script is the psychological and social barriers that hinder meaningful action on climate change, including the role of misinformation campaigns by the fossil fuel industry.

What are the '5Ds' mentioned in the script, and how do they relate to climate change?

The '5Ds' are psychological barriers identified by Per Espen Stoknes: psychological distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity. These barriers prevent individuals from fully internalizing the urgency of climate change and taking action.

How does the concept of 'psychological distance' affect our response to climate change?

Psychological distance refers to the perception that climate change is something distant in time or space, making it seem less immediate or personal, thus reducing the sense of urgency to act.

What role does the 'doom' response play in our reaction to climate news?

The 'doom' response involves a sense of fear and anxiety about catastrophic outcomes, which can lead to avoidance behaviors as people try to escape the discomfort associated with such dire predictions.

Can you explain the 'dissonance' barrier and its impact on climate action?

Dissonance is the discomfort experienced when one's actions do not align with their beliefs or knowledge. It can lead to justifications and blame-shifting to resolve the internal conflict and avoid making necessary changes.

What is the significance of 'denial' in the context of climate change?

Denial is a psychological mechanism where individuals choose to ignore or dismiss the reality of climate change to avoid the discomfort associated with acknowledging its severity, thus preventing action.

How does 'identity' act as a barrier to climate action?

Identity refers to the self-image and values that individuals have built up over time. When climate action conflicts with these identities, such as a belief in free markets or small government, the facts about climate change may be rejected to protect the individual's self-concept.

What historical parallels does the script draw between the tobacco industry and the fossil fuel industry's tactics?

The script draws parallels between the tobacco industry's efforts to downplay the health risks of smoking in the 1950s and the fossil fuel industry's attempts to create doubt about climate change, using similar public relations strategies and exploiting human psychology.

How have oil companies and PR firms influenced media coverage of climate change?

Oil companies and PR firms have influenced media coverage by promoting contrarian scientists, pushing narratives of uncertainty, and leveraging the concept of journalistic balance to give equal time to industry positions, even when they contradict scientific consensus.

What was the impact of the 'hockey stick' graph on the climate debate?

The 'hockey stick' graph, which illustrated the unprecedented rise in global temperatures during the 20th century, became a focal point of controversy and was heavily criticized by the climate denial machine, highlighting the need for effective communication of climate science.

What is the current state of climate change denial, and how has it evolved?

Climate change denial has evolved from outright denial of global warming to more subtle forms of delayism, using deception, deflection, and distraction to continue delaying meaningful action on reducing emissions.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 Climate Crisis and Psychological Impact

The script discusses the overwhelming nature of the climate crisis, highlighting the psychological effects it has on individuals. It emphasizes the disconnect between the urgency of climate action and the public's perception, often shaped by misinformation and the exploitation of psychological tendencies. The role of big industries, politicians, and media in warping public understanding is critiqued. The narrative explores the fear, anxiety, and sense of responsibility felt by people, alongside the difficulty in generating meaningful action due to psychological barriers.

05:02

🔍 The 5Ds: Unraveling Psychological Barriers to Climate Action

This paragraph delves into the '5Ds' — psychological distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity — as identified by researcher Per Espen Stoknes. These barriers hinder the public's ability to internalize climate news and act upon it. The concept of climate change being distant in time and space, the desensitization to doomsday scenarios, cognitive dissonance between beliefs and actions, and the tendency to deny uncomfortable truths are all explored. The paragraph also touches on how personal and political identities can conflict with climate action, leading to a defense of one's self-image over accepting climate realities.

10:02

🚫 Disinformation: The Fossil Fuel Industry's Role in Climate Inaction

The script exposes the fossil fuel industry's deliberate efforts to sow doubt and confusion about climate change since the late 1980s. It draws parallels with the tobacco industry's tactics to undermine the link between smoking and health risks. The narrative discusses the industry's use of PR firms to promote narratives of uncertainty, the exploitation of human psychology to create doubt, and the impact of this disinformation campaign on public perception and policy. It also features insights from Naomi Oreskes, a historian of science, on the organized disinformation campaign aimed at blocking climate action.

15:02

📉 The Hockey Stick Controversy and the Assault on Climate Science

This paragraph focuses on the controversy surrounding Michael Mann's 'hockey stick' graph, which illustrated the unprecedented rise in global temperatures due to human activity. It recounts the backlash Mann faced from climate denialists and the fossil fuel industry, including personal attacks and attempts to discredit his research. The script also criticizes the media's role in giving equal time to naysayers under the guise of journalistic balance, which skewed public discourse and understanding of the climate crisis.

20:03

🌐 Global Dimensions of Climate Change Disinformation and Delay

The narrative broadens to discuss the global aspects of climate disinformation, noting its prevalence not only in the United States but also in countries like Australia, with links to American think tanks and fossil fuel interests. It highlights the role of petrostates like Russia and Saudi Arabia in perpetuating climate inaction due to their economic reliance on fossil fuels. The paragraph also touches on the shift from overt climate denial to more subtle tactics aimed at delaying meaningful action, such as deflecting attention to individual behavior and promoting unproven technologies.

25:05

🕊️ Progress Amidst Skepticism: The Slow Shift in Public Perception

This paragraph reflects on the progress made in shifting public perception towards climate change, despite ongoing disinformation campaigns. It acknowledges the reduction in the number of Americans who completely dismiss climate science and the plateauing of global carbon emissions due to the shift towards renewable energy. However, it also underscores the slow pace of change and the missed opportunities due to decades of misinformation and policy delays.

🗣️ The Need for Effective Communication in Climate Science

The script concludes with a call for climate scientists to adopt more effective communication strategies, recognizing the need for diverse styles and collaboration with social scientists and communication experts. It emphasizes that the climate debate is not solely about the science but is deeply entwined with policy and ideology. The paragraph stresses the importance of storytelling and narratives in countering the psychological manipulation by the fossil fuel industry and the need to engage experts in social movements and political dynamics to drive social change.

Keywords

💡Climate Crisis

The term 'Climate Crisis' refers to the critical situation of global warming and its resulting environmental and societal impacts. It is the central theme of the video, highlighting the urgency and consequences of inaction. The script discusses the 'track towards an unlivable world' and the 'enormity of the crisis', emphasizing the severity of the climate crisis and its psychological and physical effects on individuals and the planet.

💡Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuels are hydrocarbon deposits such as coal, oil, and natural gas, which are non-renewable resources and major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. In the script, 'dependence on fossil fuels' is cited as a primary cause of the climate crisis, with the exploitation of these resources leading to environmental degradation and political inaction.

💡Psychological Distance

Psychological distance refers to the perceived gap between individuals and an issue, affecting how they understand and respond to it. The script mentions 'psychological distance' as one of the barriers preventing effective climate action, as people often perceive climate change as a distant problem, both spatially and temporally.

💡Dissonance

Dissonance is the mental discomfort experienced when one's beliefs or values conflict with their actions. The script discusses 'dissonance' in the context of the inconsistency between people's knowledge of climate change and their lifestyle choices, leading to justifications and denial to ease the cognitive conflict.

💡Denial

Denial is a psychological defense mechanism where individuals refuse to accept a reality that is too distressing. The script describes 'denial' as a common response to the overwhelming nature of climate change, where people may ignore or dismiss the issue to avoid the discomfort associated with acknowledging it.

💡Identity

Identity refers to the self-image and values that define an individual or group. In the script, 'identity' is highlighted as a barrier to climate action when personal or political identities conflict with the necessary actions to address climate change, leading individuals to defend their values over accepting scientific facts.

💡Disinformation

Disinformation is the deliberate spread of false or misleading information to influence public opinion or obscure the truth. The script discusses the role of 'disinformation' campaigns by the fossil fuel industry to create doubt and confusion about climate change, hindering meaningful action.

💡Doubt

Doubt, in the context of the script, is the uncertainty sown in the public mind by disinformation campaigns, making people question the facts and the urgency of climate change. It is used as a tactic to exploit human psychology and delay action, as mentioned in the script where doubt is created by the industry to prevent policy changes.

💡Hockey Stick Curve

The 'Hockey Stick Curve' is a term used in the script to describe a graph that shows a sharp increase in global temperatures in recent decades, resembling the shape of a hockey stick. It symbolizes the rapid and unprecedented warming of the Earth due to human activities and was a focal point of controversy, as it was attacked by climate change deniers.

💡Delayism

Delayism is a term coined in the script to describe the tactics used to postpone or stall necessary action on climate change. It encompasses a range of strategies from denial to deflection, aiming to maintain the status quo and protect vested interests, as exemplified by the script's discussion on the industry's efforts to 'kick the can down the road'.

💡Misinformation

Misinformation refers to incorrect or misleading information that is spread, often unintentionally. The script touches on 'misinformation' as a result of the deliberate campaigns to confuse the public about climate science, leading to a distrust of scientific claims and inaction.

Highlights

The climate crisis is exacerbated by our dependence on fossil fuels, leading to rampant exploitation of natural resources and political inaction.

Individuals grapple with the enormity of the climate crisis, often feeling fear, anxiety, and a sense of responsibility.

The psychological impact of climate change is profound, affecting how people process ecological breakdown and public understanding.

Per Espen Stoknes' book highlights advances in social sciences as crucial to understanding climate change from a psychological perspective.

Five psychological barriers, known as the 5Ds (psychological distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity), hinder meaningful climate action.

Psychological distance makes climate change seem abstract and distant in time and space, reducing personal alarm and action.

The 'doom' barrier leads to avoidance behaviors as people find it uncomfortable to repeatedly face apocalyptic scenarios.

Dissonance arises when there's a conflict between what people know about climate change and their daily actions, leading to justifications and blame-shifting.

Denial is a common psychological mechanism where people learn to live with troubling knowledge without being aware of it, normalizing inaction.

Identity plays a role in climate change skepticism, as people's self-image and values can conflict with scientific facts, leading to defense of personal beliefs.

Disinformation campaigns by big industries and fossil fuel companies exploit psychological tendencies to create doubt and block action.

Naomi Oreskes' research reveals a history of disinformation used by tobacco and fossil fuel industries to sow doubt and delay policy changes.

The 'hockey stick' graph by Michael Mann became a focal point of controversy, illustrating the unprecedented rise in global temperatures.

Media balance in reporting gave equal time to climate deniers, inadvertently promoting misinformation and misunderstanding.

Greenpeace's investigation exposes Exxon's efforts to discredit climate science and push back against environmental regulations.

Fossil fuel interests have shifted from outright denial to delay tactics, using deception, deflection, and distraction to continue business as usual.

There's a need for a multidisciplinary approach, involving social scientists and communication experts, to effectively counter climate denial and promote action.

The importance of narratives and storytelling in science communication is emphasized to create compelling and memorable messages.

Transcripts

supercharged by the climate crisis on

track towards an unlivable world it's

impossible to escape climate news

millions of animals killed and whole

neighborhoods ared people and the planet

are being throttled by our dependence on

fossil fuels there's rampant

exploitation of natural resources and

politics has meant that climate action

has not gone nearly as far as it should

have and then there's us individuals and

how we process the enormity of the

crisis we're in telling the story of

climate change psychology can reveal not

only the ways in which we grapple with

ecological breakdown but also how big

Industries politicians and even the

media at times have warped public

understanding and action on the greatest

crisis Humanity faces

[Music]

[Music]

the first thing that comes to my mind

when I hear the word climate change is

disaster waiting disaster you know a lot

of fear a lot of anxiety frightening I

think I am scared of it for

sure climate change for me is quite an

overwhelming concept hopeless

like it really affects me and I feel

like I'm to blame on some of the things

I feel responsible in a

way we already have a baby and we have a

fear of future I do care about it quite

a bit but I also kind of feel defeated

by

it it's no wonder people feel like this

news of climate breakdown is in

escapable and even if you managed to

switch off the TV or took a break from

social media the impact of global

warming is real for many of us

temperatures are soaring floods and

droughts are both getting more frequent

and more severe Wildlife is seriously

struggling never before have we been

more aware of the Dire Straits the

planet is in so why is generating

meaningful action on the climate crisis

so difficult scientists and science is

becoming more and more certain about the

urgency and the problem but we haven't

still caught up with how humans respond

to all that sence so that's where I've

been trying to contribute per Espen

Stokes is the author of what we think

about when we try not to think about

global warming he says some of the most

significant recent advances in our

understanding of climate change haven't

come from the physical sciences they've

come from the social sciences and a

deeper understanding of how our brains

work I'm not in any way denying that

it's oil comp companies driving this and

there are huge campaigns and there is

corruption and there is lobbying and at

the same time we have to ask why does

that propaganda have so much impact when

30,000 scientific studies and six ipcc

report is not enough to counter it and

that is where psychology can come in

this propaganda plays on psychological

structure and if you're able to fish

into that you're able to exploit those

irrational Tendencies uh and you're in a

power game through his research pesen

has found five psychological barriers

that prevent climate news from sinking

in and leading to meaningful response

and action he calls them the 5Ds

psychological distance the overuse of

Doom too much dissonance denial and

finally identity so those five together

are like clusters of mechanisms that uh

explain why it's so hard for people to

really take in the alarm okay pesen

let's start with the first D

psychological distance the climate is in

terms of perception and the way it's

communicated something very distant from

me personally it's far away in space

Arctic polar bears are facing near

Extinction climate change is not an

abstract notion for these islands but

it's also far away in time because

scientists have been formed to speaking

about 4° by 2,100 or the year 2050 and

that time frame is very far away from my

daily life s to say we're on track to go

up by another half a degree by 2030 the

Earth's temperature Will Rise by 3.2 de

by the end of the century this is a

global issue and it's abstract so

whatever I do it doesn't seem to make a

dent and a lot of people have learned to

focus on what you can do something about

and not focus on stuff you can't do

anything about global greenhouse gas

emissions really have to be slashed

nearly in half by 2030 I'm no scientist

but that that sounds pretty hard to

reach and finally the people who are

hurt people who are drowning or St

staring or burning in wildfires that's

many steps between me and them who are

suffering those four dimensions time

space influence and responsibility add

up to a very strong perceived distance

climate doesn't really trigger my alarm

Center so the next defense you have

listed is Doom how does that work so

imagine you say that climate change is

here which now going to change

everything there will be famin there

will be breakdowns of the ocean and the

weather systems the issue is that most

of the days I look out of the window and

things look normal and most of the days

there is food and most of the days

people seem to go about their lives so

there is a sense that there's a cry wolf

a lot of the time and what we know from

psychology is that first time you would

may go into a huge alarm in your brain

and you feel fear maybe a bit guilt then

the second time is about 40% less and

then each time it's repeated the

adrenaline goes down so of comes another

response which is that it was

uncomfortable to listen to this Doom

previous time so my brain will try to

avoid it I'll change the channel or I'll

go to another website and we call that

avoidance behaviors and finally if I can

discredit the messenger saying oh it's a

godam tree hugger or climate hysteric I

can get off that Doom feeling and I

don't feel the threat

anymore I don't know who to trust most

of them seem aggressive they seem to be

funded by some uh you know lobbies uh

which have their own

agenda now at this point it's important

to highlight that there are many of us

who do not feel distan from the climate

crisis and are not put off by a sense of

Doom around climate news but the third

barrier dissonance struck a chord with

me because there's a definite dissonance

in some of the choices we make in our

daily lives dissonance is best described

as an inner discomfort when your actions

don't correspond with what you know and

believe people often experience

dissonance when the facts that they

understand and agree with for example

that burning fossil fuels contributes to

climate change conflicts with what they

actually do such as driving or taking

flights if the brain picks up that

you're not feeling too good about

yourself then it comes up with

justifications like your car isn't that

bad the neighbor's car he's even worse

or my colleague she flies five times I

only fly two times a year or I could say

it's not Australia really it's the US

they're the problem or the us could say

it's not the US is China you can always

blame somebody else it's them not me in

this way uh the dissonance is removed

and if you do that dissonance handling

for some time many can end up in a state

of denial right yes you may be a little

bit alert or geared up by some bad flood

or fire on Thursday in the news but then

by Monday morning you're living onwards

as if you never heard you've just forgot

it we can see these things in the number

of Google searches for instance after

Hurricane Sandy smashed New York there

was a immense increase in the search on

Hurricane and climate and then 3 weeks

to 3 months later uh that Peak was down

to the Baseline again and we call this

mechanism denial you simply learn to

live without thinking much about it

sometimes denial is used as a kind of

pejorative you stupid denier but you can

be intelligent and moral and everything

it's just a very common mechanism of the

brain that we are learning to live with

a deeply troubling knowledge without

being aware of it and longer finally

identity means that I spent a number of

years building up my self image I'm a

dentist I'm a oil worker proud trucker

then the same thing in terms of politics

I vote conservative or I vote left and

each time something comes up I will scan

it to see whether it goes well with my

values or whether it crashes with my

values and if there is a conflict then

usually the facts will lose and I will

defend my values so if for instance

there are climate scientist saying that

what you need is a higher tax on carbon

more government regulations but I've

construed my identity as somebody who

loves a free market and small

governments and small taxes then all

those facts and those recommendations

will crash against my values hence they

must be wrong because now they're

criticizing me so this is where climate

discourse goes really bad when people

feel their identity

threatened knowledge of these

psychological responses is power

but it's just one aspect of the climate

response over time our psychological

reactions have been both intentionally

and unintentionally played upon Big

Industry politicians and even the media

have been able to psychologically Target

us War public understanding and paralyze

action on climate

[Music]

change what we've shown in our work is

that we've been the victims of a

deliberate conscious organized dis

information campaign Naomi orcus is a

historian of science at Harvard

University she is known internationally

for her work on the role of

disinformation in blocking climate

action going back as far as the late

1980s the fossil fuel industry has

deliberately attempted to muddy the

waters to Poison the Well of public

debate um and to prevent action by

confusing us about what the problem even

is the creation of Doubt making people

question the facts making them wonder

whether Human Action even is the cause

of the climate crisis has been a

powerful tactic for big corporations

especially the fossil fuel industry I

think doubt is powerful because it does

tap into human psychology right the

world is filled with doubt the world is

confusing life is confusing so figuring

out who to trust what to trust what to

focus on where to put our energies

that's hard and it's become even harder

in recent decades because we're

bombarded all the time now by messaging

247 and so the doubt mongering exploits

that it's based on knowing that if

people aren't sure they'll just give up

or they'll just say well you know I'll

think about that tomorrow or that's

someone else's problem or I really got

to go pick up my kids from football

practice right so it's exploiting that

natural tendency fossil fuel companies

weren't the only ones to play on

people's psychology in their book

merchants of Doubt Naomi and fellow

science historian Eric Conway spent

years sifting through more than 14

million documents that came out of a

series of lawsuits against us tobacco

firms a strikingly familiar story

emerged decades before the fossil fuel

industry tried to undermine the case for

climate change tobacco companies had

used the same techniques even the same

public relations firms to challenge the

links between smoking and lung cancer in

the 1950s as cool and as clean as a

breath of fresh

air that snow fresh fter

cool people were looking for a way out

of that dissonance between knowing that

smoking was dangerous to her health it

is a judgment of the committee that

cigarette smoking contributes

substantially to mortality from certain

specific

diseases and to the overall death rate

the same thing happen with climate when

climate tells you that CO2 kills if we

don't do the right thing now there are

very serious problems that our children

and grandchildren will have to face and

then somebody comes up and says to you

well actually it's not really sure these

studies are counteracted by other

studies trust us so this is how doubt

becomes psychologically beneficial

because it rids yourself out of that

ugly feeling so when you see the same

pattern being used over and over and

over again in completely different

context except what they have in common

is that they're selling a dangerous

product they're selling you something

that actually could hurt you and then

you begin to realize oh well these

people have a strong incentive to lie

and guess what not only do they lie but

they lie in the same way to single out

smoking as a causal agent is on the

evidence to date completely unjustified

there is no basis in the scientific

literature they found no consistent

correlation between carbon dioxide and

Earth's temperature

[Music]

the idea is to create confusion because

if we're confused in most cases we won't

act as climate disinformation campaigns

ramped up in the 1990s oil companies and

their PR firms propped up contrarian

scientists to push narratives of

uncertainty and shift how journalists

covered the issue Big Oil became a key

Arbiter of where the coverage of their

industry was journalistically sound they

would ACC those who didn't quote CEOs

and spokespeople of bias their efforts

resulted in a denial machine a sprawling

network of Talking Heads front groups

and false research outfits built to

persuade people that they have nothing

to worry about then in 1998 a newly

qualified PhD scientist Michael man

stole the show in the climate debate

with a graph that would cause

controversy for the next 20 years I

found myself under uh assault by this

massive climate denial machine back in

the late 1990s when my co-authors and I

published the now iconic hockey stick

curve using temperature data dating back

over 1,000 years Michael and's

colleagues plotted a graph called the

hockey stick curve for obvious reasons

and made the case that human activity is

the undeniable cause of global warming

we believe we are seeing the effect of

human beings on the climate of the 20th

century it wasn't the first convincing

line of evidence that we were warming

the planet and changing the climate

there were many independent lines of

evidence but the hockey stick I think

was more visceral because it told a

simple story all you had to do is look

at it to realize the unprecedented

challenge that we face today and so all

of the weight of the fossil fuel

disinformation machine came down on me

uh other German scientists have called

it statistical rubbish uh he's been

called a statistical charlatan he has

had report after report attacking the

foundation the idea that 20th century

temperatures are unprecedented is what

Michael man is pedaling through the UN

efforts to criminalize the science that

I and other climate scientists were

doing Michael's personal emails were

hacked and selected contents were

published on the internet to suggest

that he and other climatologists were

manipulating or hiding data and so this

is what the fossil fuel industry and

their Advocates recognize that if we can

pick off one scientist and make an

example of them for the others I would

just Retreat into my laboratory I chose

not to do that because I recognized that

that's exactly what they wanted they

wanted to silence me many of the media

Outlets that were wittingly or

unwittingly part of the pylon Justified

the space they gave to naysayers as part

of a practice of journalistic balance

one of the Skeptics he's a senior fellow

in Environmental Studies at the KO

Institute and the other side a familiar

face Bill Nye the Science Guy in fact

the TIC ice has been increasing

considerably over the past few months

and that is well known and he would

accept that I'm not sure which bit of

it's increasing if you're saying that

the sea ice is freezing it's winter and

that's what you no it's more more than

before but anyhow the point is not so

much this there's a range of f there's a

range of views on the sides the idea was

balance right and it was tied to a kind

of ideal of objectivity objectivity

means you try as much as you're humanly

able to look at the evidence fairly not

oh well I have to listen to Joe spout

lies for an equal amount of time as

listening to Mike tell me the truth I

mean that's an absurd notion of

objectivity again the industry knew that

journalists felt that way and so they

knew that they could exploit that and

they could persuade journalists in the

interest of objectivity to give equal

time to the industry position even if

the industry position was a lie and even

if we had scientific evidence to show

that that industry position was untrue

in July 2021 Greenpeace the

international climate campaigning

Network released an investigation about

lobbying by the fossil fuel industry

working with the UK's Channel 4 they

went undercover to expose how one

Corporation Exxon has worked hard to

push back against science the facts Did

We join some of these shadow groups uh

to to work

against uh some of the early efforts yes

that's

true uh but there's nothing there's

nothing illegal about that we finally

heard someone say out loud what we had

known for years that Exon Mobile really

was trying to discredit the basic

science of human caused climate change

and spending lots of money in an effort

to do that now the lobbyists seem to

think that that's fine that that's okay

but it's not okay because what Exxon

Mobile and other fossil fuel companies

have done is to mortgage our planet and

and to mortgage the livability of our

planet for future Generations by

blocking the actions we should have

taken decades ago and then there's the

wishful thinking part we don't want the

world to be terrible and we don't want

to believe that people in positions of

authority are lying to us and we find it

hard especially when those people look

respectable I mean one of the reasons

why color crime is hard to prosecute is

because we we tend to assume that good

clothes equates good people or we tend

to assume that professional success

means good morals well of course that's

not true and yet somehow we slip into

that pattern so you know there's a kind

of cognitive dissonance between what we

think about criminality versus the

corporate exeutive and we don't want it

to be true I mean again who's got the

better message I come along where Mike

man comes along and says this is a

catastrophe we're all going to die the

question is never whether or not we're

effed or screwed it's how effed are we

and the CEO of XM mobile says Ah it's

fine don't worry we'll fix it with

technology and so we're working on

Technologies to help close that Gap

we're working on carbon capture and

storage we're looking at biofuels which

are energy dense so who's got the better

message so people will gravitate to the

good news message and they'll tend to

tune out the bad news message American

oil conglomerates are not the only ones

with vested interests in delaying

climate action I asked Naomi and Michael

if this patent is seen elsewhere

certainly climate change denial is not

restrict to the United States and if I

had to say the second worst place it's

actually Australia where the coal

industry has been very involved in

disinformation but we have excellent

evidence that it starts in the United

States and we have pretty good evidence

that it was actually deliberately

exported some of the institutes in the

United Kingdom in Australia in Germany

that have participated in these kinds of

campaigns have direct links back to

American usually think tanks and those

think tanks have links to fossil fuel

it's also important for us to recognize

that there's some bad State actors as

well involved in this Petro States like

Russia and Saudi Arabia that have built

their economies off of our Reliance on

their fossil fuels so fossil fuels prop

up these authoritarian governments they

actually fuel the aggression that we

have seen from Russia and ironically our

continued dependence on fossil fuels is

used by these Bad actors as a cudle um

for example Europe's uh Reliance on

Russian oil was used by Russia to try to

prevent European involvement um in their

war of aggression against

Ukraine the war on climate science has

peeded out oil companies stop pushing

overt climate denial more than decade

ago and while attacks on scientists do

occur and conspiracy theories claiming

climate change as a hoax May surface

occasionally those tactics are no longer

as effective as they once were what is

happening now is a war on climate action

a softer form of denialism in which

deception deflection and distraction are

used ultimately to continue delaying

meaningful Cuts in global emissions

fossil fuel interest polluters they have

sought to deflect attention away from

the needed systemic changes towards

individual Behavior as if it's just

about you and me changing our eating

habits also dividing climate Advocates

getting climate Advocates fighting with

each other online using bot armies and

trolls to divide the community delay

kicking the can down the road talking

about how they will use new technology

that doesn't exist uh today at scale as

a way of

excusing continued business as usual As

you move from denying just uh whether

there is global warming or not the next

step is uh it is there but it's not

dangerous how dangerous is global

warming really well I don't think it's

particularly dangerous or if you accept

that it's actually getting dangerous

then you could always point the finger

to somebody else so we don't have to do

anything now we can delay action because

they should go first is climate change

real yes it is but if you want to and

really change the environment then we

need to start telling China and India

that they have to lower their emissions

and then if you accept actually it is

dangerous now there is flooding and

there is fire but it's actually too

costly to do much about it because it

would ruin our economy and we would lose

our jobs climate change will have a

major impact on employment both on jobs

and the Way businesses operate and

finally you could say well it's

dangerous uh it is costly but now it's

too late to do much about it then the

focus becomes on securing your life

rather than doing something about it

this is a a kind of Continuum of

arguments where you go gradually from

denial to delayer ISM it's always been

about delay delaying action continuing

to promote business as usual that's the

end game Diversion distraction doubt

mongering are all means to the end of

delay and it's what it was for tobacco

the tobacco industry knew they had a

product that was killing people in the

1950s but they also knew that if they

could delay Tobacco Control they could

continue to make large profits and they

would just keep doing that for as long

as they could but we're also seeing some

progress and it's important to keep that

in mind as well we are seeing carbon

emissions now globally start to plateau

and we know that's due to the shift

underway from fossil fuels towards

renewable energy the problem is it isn't

happening fast enough and in large part

because of the forces of inaction and

the stalling tactics that they're

using we live in an age of skepticism

some of it is completely Justified and

necessary some of it though is the

product of deliberate misinformation and

misdirection it has led to distrust of

wellestablished scientific claims about

the climate well I think it's hardly

surprising that people are confused and

that some people don't trust scientists

because they've been the victims of a

campaign designed to confuse them on the

good side I guess I could say the latest

poll results show that the number of

Americans who completely dismiss climate

science is actually down to only 9 %

despite this massive disinformation

campaign so that's really good news the

problem though is how long it has taken

to get to this point and how many missed

opportunities have have been along the

way climate scientists bear some

responsibility for proportion of the

missed opportunities for too long they

operated under the naive belief that

their communication strategies dry

sometimes inaccessible and often not

very engaging were fine and that there

was no other serious way to share

scientific information the temperature

will rise perhaps by something like4 or.

5° F per decade in reality persuading

people Demands a host of different

communication Styles and it helps to

collaborate with social scientists and

communication experts who understand

that it's not just the facts that you're

providing it's how you deliver those

facts in a way that's accessible sticky

memorable scientists like myself

recognize now that the debate over

climate change isn't really about the

science it's a proxy war over policy and

ideology and it's essential that you

recognize that if you're going to Target

the denialism and the delay ISM yeah

it's important to talk about the science

but it's not sufficient we have to help

the public connect the dots you know the

journalism uh Community itself has

become wise and increasingly recognizes

that you don't need to have a climate

change denier quoted in every story

along with you know mainstream climate

scientists that when you do that you're

really skewing the discourse in the

direction of misinformation and

misunderstanding we looked to scientists

to solve climate change because we

thought if they could just explain it

then we'd act on it most people were

pretty slow to recognize it as a

political problem because it was framed

from the get-go as a scientific question

I get a little frustrated actually when

journalists go back to climate

scientists to ask about well what do we

do now yeah they're not actually asking

the right people people now you really

need to get people engaged who have been

involved in social movements who

understand politics who who study

political Dynamics who study social

change we need much more of that

expertise right now yes we absolutely

need the science for but we need to

better understand that the solution

space is not a question of physical

science not as catastropic as as I did

the research for this episode it became

clear to me that climate psychology is

really at the heart of what this series

is about seeking to understand why our

response to this existential crisis is

the way that it

is there's been a pretty sophisticated

psychological operation going on for

decades our fears skepticisms and hope

that somebody else is dealing with it

have all been used against us and in

some cases we've made it easy now though

with time as tight as it is and the need

for understanding and action incredibly

urgent getting a grip on our

psychological responses is key and

working out a to counter for fuel

manipulation is important so there are a

lot of lessons that we can learn from

Communications experts when it comes to

obviously science communication and one

of those lessons is the importance of

narratives the importance of

Storytelling the fossil fuel industry

they have funded so much research they

do focus groups they do polls they

understand which messages work they

understand how to tell compelling

stories and if we don't do the same then

we're going to lose this battle for the

hearts and minds of the

public thanks so much for watching this

latest episode if you aren't aware this

actually forms part of a 10-part series

called all how the planet which looks at

the forces undermining meaningful action

on the climate crisis uh if you'd like

to check out any of those you can easily

use the hash allhow the planet on social

media otherwise look for allh how on

al.com