Climate Change in Historical Perspectives: Scientific, Corporate, and Political Denial
On Wednesday October 19, 2022, the Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest virtually hosted three scholars to reflect on climate change denial as part of the Lepage Center’s annual event series, Climate Change in Historical Perspectives. This was the second in a series of six talks on climate change. This discussion was moderated by Dr. Julia Mansfield, Assistant Professor of History of Villanova University and the speakers comprised of Dr. Eve Darian-Smith, Chair and professor of Global and International Studies at UC Irvine; Dr. Erik Conway, historian at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Dr. Ron Kramer, professor of Sociology at Western Michigan University. You can find the recording of the talk here.
Climate change narratives have faced multiple forms of denial since their emergence in the public and political consciousness in the mid 20th century. The second installment of this year’s Lepage Center event series reminded us that the issues of climate change truth and denial are as important as ever and learning about the origins of past denials might help shape our attempts to combat them in the future. Moderated by Dr. Julia Mansfield, Assistant Professor of History here at Villanova University, the three-person panel provided an interdisciplinary approach to understand three areas of climate change denial.
Dr. Eve Darian-Smith, professor and chair for the Global and International Studies department at UC Irvine, summarized the research that led to her most recent book, Global Burning: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate Crisis. With a global and interdisciplinary look at the concept of climate change denial, Dr. Darian-Smith’s book examines the parallel rise of climate change denial and anti-democratic action and rhetoric from national political leaders in the United States, Brazil, and her home country of Australia. Her topic is centered around wildfires and provoked the audience to consider the relationship between our understanding of the environment and democracy.
Dr. Erik Conway is renowned for his work as an author and as the historian for NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory, a unit of Caltech. His presentation covered his 2010 book Merchants of Doubt co-authored with Dr. Naomi Orsekes and published by Bloomsbury Press. He also touched on his upcoming book, The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market, to be published by Bloomsbury press in early 2023. Both books deal with the concept of market fundamentalism. Merchants of Doubt focuses on a group of scientists who placed the importance of the market over scientific truths concerning climate change, which in turn was used by politicians and corporations to continue business as usual despite real scientific truths and growing public interest in climate change.
As the final presenter, Dr. Ron Kramer provided a perspective on the criminal nature of climate change denial. As a professor of sociology, Dr. Kramer’s work at Western Michigan University focuses on criminology and law. After introducing how crime and criminology could coincide with climate change discussion and denial, Dr. Kramer touched on his conceptual and theoretical approach for his 2020 book Carbon Criminals, Climate Crimes, published by Rutgers University Press. As Dr. Kramer noted, climate change denial might be outside the traditional views of prosecutorial crime but that does not mean that it is not a crime or should not be understood as a crime. His book centers four climate crimes that could be attributed to state and corporate agents, two of which aligned with the other speakers’ talking points. The first was based around knowledge, specifically when corporations knew that their actions were contributing to climate change, much like Dr. Conway’s introduction of scientists influenced by market fundamentalism. The second was a crime of political omission and the ways in which politicians downplay or dismiss climate change, in the same way that Dr. Darian-Smith investigated politicians like former President Trump or the soon-to-be former President Bolsonaro of Brazil and their use and relationship with climate change denial rhetoric.
While it might seem a discouraging to spend an evening talking on the denial of something that will irreparably damage the globe we all inhabit, there is value in facing this head on. To provide some positivity into a necessary but difficult subject, Dr. Mansfield’s questions helped elucidate avenues for continued resistance to climate change denial and possible positives in looking to the future. Each scholar spoke on what they saw as levers of change to fight this growing wave of climate change denial and the trend of disengagement. All three scholars spoke to the importance of local politics and grassroots initiatives for productive ways to combat denial.
Climate change denial in the face of impending catastrophe may seem both disheartening and depressing, but there are glimmers of change and progress that the speakers highlighted. The rights of nature — such as rivers, forests, and animals — are being acknowledged and discussed in court proceedings. There are also demonstrations and activist groups both on and off campuses working hard to garner support and keep people engaged with these pressing climate issues. As an audience member, I began to think about more ways I can contribute to greater climate change discussion and combat this denial. I would encourage you to do the same.
