Climate change denial is the belief that global warming is not happening or that it’s not as serious of an issue as climate scientists make it out to be. Although much of the evidence that climate deniers base their theories on has been debunked by the scientific community, there are still those who continue to deny the legitimacy of the warming climate. The prevalence of climate change denial theories is both psychological and a product of intense campaigning by the fossil fuel industry. It is easy to feel helpless when looking at the prognostics of the climate given by scientists. On an individual level, we can only make a tiny dent in global warming by reducing our consumption and waste, while at the same time, gas companies and major energy corporations produce millions of tons of pollutants each year, and no individual can stop them from this. The sheer vastness of the problem can make people feel powerless, and climate denial is a way for people to regain control by rejecting sources claiming that there is a problem.

Although climate change denial theories have proliferated online in social media spheres for the past decade or so, they first rose to prominence in the 90s. In 1989, most of the public was aware of the threats posed by climate change as more scientific evidence pointed towards its likelihood, but this sentiment did not last long. Fossil fuel companies strategically invested millions of dollars in funding small numbers of climate skeptics, conservative thinktanks, such as the George C. Marshall Institute and the Global Climate Coalition, and various anti-climate change publications. The intent was to give the American public messages that would sow doubts about climate change. Even though the vast majority of climate scientists believed in climate change, the news covered climate denial as if it were an equally viable possibility, and the intended messaging slowly trickled into all types of media, changing the landscape of public thought to be more critical of climate change. Read more…