The Delegitimization of Climate Science - Essay Example

The Delegitimization of Climate Science Name Institution WORD COUNT: 1544 The Delegitimization of Climate Science Climate change has been for many years an issue that has left the world especially leaders of different nations and environmental experts. The level of human activity on earth has led to carbon dioxide emissions that are unregulated reaching alarming rates. All the concerned experts agree that there is a cause for alarm but not as reported by scientists and the evidence that they offer. This has led to the public and blogger questioning some of the evidence presented forward by experts of climate science (Lewandowsky et al., 2013). There is the issue of leaders and other concerned parties having their political interests in the research findings of scientific investigations. This creates some unreliability of the reports due to the manufacture of doubt that the factor of political interests vests. This has been a common phenomenon in the climate science, erupting to the doubts due to the multiple sources of error cited. For instance, some conservative think tanks that have been having their interests have been sponsoring the publication of an overwhelming number of the 90% of all the books that are pushing for adoption of skepticism towards the issue of environmentalism (Dunlap & Jacques, 2013). These are the books that have been in the market for an extended period of time ranging from the years of 1972 to today. Most of these books have contradicted the truth and gone ahead to criticize the sound scientific findings, twisting the facts into some other stories that the think tanks want people to believe. An example is the discrediting of the well-researched scientific findings of the role played by chlorofluorocarbon on the erosion of the earth's ozone layer and their effect on climate change. These efforts to alter the facts and replace them with some other information that is far from the truth are all influenced by the free market economies of capitalism. As a result, the regulatory impact that is supposed to be slapped on the industry is therefore shielded, and the business persons or organizations are free to carry out their duties without interference. The cartel of business persons and women with their enterprises can never want to see a factual finding concluded and published, as this would put their operations in jeopardy, cutting down on their wealth. Wherever there is a credible outcome that is done by independent scientists, the cartels rise and funds the most trusted institutions to produce another finding contradicting the actual one in an attempt to counteract the outcomes that may affect their organizations negatively (Lewandowsky et al., 2013). Some of these activities have had a favorable impact on the free market economies such as the tobacco industry. There has not been a ban on the use of tobacco due to such shielding, and the use of CFC's has continued to be practiced with the environment suffering the most. Political factors have also come to in to play their part in an attempt by the political leaders to fulfill their interests as they doctor scientific findings to match their interests. This is in line with the faking of the famous moon landing by NASA. In fact, such an act never happened but was just staged in a film in the Hollywood. The view of Australians on climate change confirms the results of the manipulation of human brains by the free market economy practices that there is no much contribution of the climate change is not attributable to human activities. However, it is not true because much of the adverse effects on the environment are brought about by human activities on earth. The result of the 22 studies that were done on the Australian population concerning climate change confirms that the mindset of the population has changed by an incredible measure. Many have stopped believing in climatic change as well as the anthropogenic caused in Australia. The same tendency has spread out to other European countries, and this is worrying. Although during the research there were some variations as far as their responses were concerned, they all pointed to the same conclusion, showing the similarity in their beliefs. Also, there is no doubt that the thoughts of the public pertaining climate change do not depend on many independent factors that are far from the obvious ones that preoccupy their minds. The political preferences are the most common factors with others being the behaviors that they exhibit when voting and also their particular genders. This indicates the significant link between this serious scientific issue and the most unreliable source of all, which is none other than politics. When the governments take control of the ideas, the thoughts and beliefs of a nation, the people are most probably headed in the wrong direction. Since these patterns are common everywhere regardless of other factors that should be counting, there is no any close relationship whatsoever between the thoughts held by the people on climate change and their location, age or even gender. However, there is the feeling by the public in Australia that the government should act on its own on matters concerning climate change withouit6 having to depend on international conventions and agreements to give them direction. This might be seen as a thought that signals the knowledge that the people have about the adverse effects of human activities on the environment. However, it is not the case as one may think. The public only thinks that the institution which is so much reliable to provide a solution to this burning issue is their government. An indication is therefore read that the population is easily manipulated by the political leaders and the politics of the region concerning serious matters that concern their environment. They see no need for global consensus as far as mitigating the effects of climate change is concerned. The people of Australia also seem to lack a preference as far as the solution to global climate change is concerned. They present no standard solution and others even have no suggestions to solving this problem. Some nonetheless proposes the setting of carbon price while others are of the idea that the establishment of a scheme to control the emission of carbon is the best workable formula to adopt. The report further recommends that there is the need to have a further research done on Australians as far as their understanding of the problem of climate change is concerned and the necessary actions that are ought to be taken by the government of Australia. The most surprising figures are the numbers of people in Australia who believe that climate change is not fiction but a fact. The studies were done I the year 20o8 by different poll companies such as Newspoll, USA Gallup Poll, etc. suggests that the population did not believe that climate change was happening. The public seems to have inadequate knowledge of their environment. Despite this fact, the numbers of those who were ignorant of this environmental problem kept on increasing in the subsequent surveys, showing that ignorance has continued to grow. However, this cannot be termed as ignorance but the manipulation of the people by their political leaders to believe in something else which is not the fact (McCright et al., 2016). There has come in some factors that influence the perception and belief hold about climate change. Considering the question that was put forward regarding the contribution of human activity to climate change, several factors surfaced (Leviston et al., 2011). Gender is the first one, with men seeming less concerned and also rejecting the belief that human activity is responsible for climate change. However, women appear to be more aware than men, with a 49% of them holding to this belief while only a 40% of men's population subscribing to a similar opinion. Another factor that came in to play its part in changing the perception of people is the location. The areas that areas whose populations were compared were those around the capital cities and those who lived in the countryside. The urban people seemed more sensitive to the fact that human activity does bring about climate change with the majority of the rural population seeming not to believe in what the opinion of the majority of their urban counterparts. The statistics were 58% to 27% for urban dwellers and their rural counterparts respectively. Education is also another factor that came in because those who held bachelor's degrees were more likely to hold on to the opinion that activities of human beings on earth have brought about climate change with 83%. Those who held diploma certificates followed second with a 78% while those who had no post-secondary school education qualification trailed with a 69% (Leviston et al., 2011). In conclusion, research findings of climate change are manipulated for the benefit of a few players who control and fund the research process. According to Pew Research Center (2016), this results in biased conclusions which are fully supported by the political class and other influential people in the society such as businesspersons operating in free market economies. The population's mindset about the issue of climate change is significantly affected by the events in the political arena, and other factors contribute little to the beliefs held by the public hence the delegitimization of climate science. References Dunlap, R., & Jacques, P.J. (2013).Climate change denial books and conservative think tanks: Exploring the connection. American Behavioral Scientist, 57, 699-731. http://ezproxy.une.edu.au/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002764213477096 Leviston, Z., Leitch, A., Greenhill, M., Leonard, R., & Walker, I. (2011). Australians’ views of climate change. Social & Economic Sciences Program, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences. http://www.garnautreview.org.au/update-2011/commissioned-work/australians-view-of-climatechange.pdf Lewandowsky, S., Oberauer, K., & Gignac, G.E. (2013). NASA faked the moon landing— Therefore, (climate) science Is a hoax: An anatomy of the motivated rejection of science. Psychological Science, 24, 622-633. http://ezproxy.une.edu.au/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612457686 McCright, A. M., Charters, M., Dentzman, K. and Dietz, T. (2016). Examining the effectiveness of climate change frames in the face of a climate change denial counter-frame. Topics in Cognitive Science, 8, 76–97. http://ezproxy.une.edu.au/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/tops.12171 Pew Research Center, (2016). The Politics of Climate. http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/04/the-politics-of-climate/ Read More