The Origins of Climate Denialism | Nathaniel Rich
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“It takes a lot of work to get people to understand the reality after they have been poisoned by this propaganda for decades.”
SHOW DESCRIPTION
Location: Skype
Date: Friday, 24th January 2020
Company: nathanielrich.com
Role: Author
In 1979, the global consensus from the scientific community, politicians and even the oil and gas industry regarding climate change was in agreement: increasing levels of C02 in the atmosphere was warming the planet, and this could lead to severe consequences.
Losing Earth by Nathaniel Rich is a narrative from 1979-1989, telling the story of the scientists who risked their careers to convince the world to act before it was too late, the birth of denialism and the role of the oil and gas industry.
Earth’s climate is warming rapidly, and the scientific community is mostly consistent as to the causes. The doomsday clock has now reached 100 seconds to midnight (the closest to midnight it has ever been), with climate change sighted as a key contributor.
According to the UK Met Office, the past decade (2010 to 2019) has been the hottest on record and five of the top 10 warmest single years have all occurred since 2015. In 2019, oceans hit record temperatures. Australia experienced the worst wildfires on record, and the Greenland ice sheet is melting at an alarming rate.
Even with the vast majority of the scientific community agreeing on climate change and tangible evidence that this is a real phenomenon, there is a loud opposition, fueled by misinformation.
In this interview, I talk to Nathaniel Rich. We discuss the early scientific consensus on climate change and the oil and gas industry’s effort to thwart policy change.
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SHOW NOTES
Connect with Nathaniel:
More of Nathaniel’s work:
New York Times: Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change
Amazon: Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change
Mentioned in the show:
The Guardian: Ex-Nasa scientist: 30 years on, world is failing 'miserably’ to address climate change
The Guardian: The GOP and Big Oil can't escape blame for climate change
United Nations: The Noordwijk Ministerial Declaration on climate change
New York Times: The Nation; The Environmental Impact of President Bush
United Nations: World Climate Conference - Geneva 1979
Wikipedia: JASON (advisory group)
Science Mag: Jason—a secretive group of Cold War science advisers—is fighting to survive in the 21st century
Phys.org: The Charney Report: 40 years ago, scientists accurately predicted climate change
Wikipedia: Friends of the Earth
New York Times: Haste of Global Warming Trend Opposed
National Geographic: Ozone depletion, explained
National Geographic: 30 Years Old, the Montreal Protocol Saved the Ozone Layer
People mentioned in the show:
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