Essay by Eric Worrall
Apparently “… denialism is standing up for industrial capitalism. … poorly educated men (and to the regional communities built around them) …” are the drivers of modern climate denial.
Never mind the science, News Corp has strengthened its climate denialism machine
Climate crisis denial can come in many forms — and Murdoch’s empire has all bases covered.
CHRISTOPHER WARREN
APR 02, 2024The News Corp climate denial machine — all those cogs in its opinion pages finely tuned to reverse Aesop’s fable and repeatedly croak out: “No wolf here!” — has a problem. Extreme weather events have made it all but impossible to ignore the climate wolf threatening to blow our houses down.
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They’ve reengineered the underlying denialism, too. Sure, they say now, the climate may be changing, but it’s not our fault. It’s not, as the cloistered academics would say, “anthropogenic”.
If global heating is not caused by humans burning fossil fuels, why would humans be able to do anything about it? (And, just in case, why not go, umm, nukular?)
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“Attribution” has always been the weakest form of denialism, raising doubts rather than definitively rejecting. But as a recent US study found, its danger lies in being the gateway drug to a more full-blown repudiation of the science itself.
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Why did climate denial suddenly become a touchstone for the global right? …
… It’s been tagged “the anti-reflexivity thesis“, which is the argument that denialism is standing up for industrial capitalism.
It appeals to a certain old-style machismo — the good ol’ days of physical, manual jobs that matter for poorly educated men (and to the regional communities built around them).
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Read more: https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/04/02/news-corp-climate-change-denial-machine/
The person who wrote this vile outpouring of ignorance and contempt for rural people and people who work with their hands is a former president of the International Federation of Journalists – which in my opinion goes a long way towards explaining why large sectors of society don’t trust establishment media.
Climate attribution studies are far from beyond question. They purport to explain how much climate change contributes to weather, but doubts have been raised about the methodology, including concerns about serious mathematical biases in the method used to tease the alleged climate impact from the data.
Christopher Warren implies advocacy of nuclear energy is an expression of industrial capitalist supporter ignorance, but real ignorance is denying that nuclear energy is a serious option. Nuclear works in france, which still generates around 70% of their electricity from affordable zero carbon nuclear. Are the French much smarter than everyone else on the planet? Or is copying the French nuclear success something any advanced nation could reasonably attempt to do?
But the idea that climate denial is motivated by irrational support for industrial capitalism is the crowning absurdity of Christopher’s article. From a study referenced by the article;
Anti-Reflexivity and Climate Change Skepticism in the US General Public
Aaron M. McCright Lyman Briggs College and Department of Sociology Michigan State University, Michigan, United States
Abstract
The leading theoretical explanation for the mobilization of organized climate change denial is the Anti-Reflexivity Thesis, which characterizes the climate change denial countermovement as a collective force defending the industrial capitalist system. In this study, I demonstrate that the Anti-Reflexivity Thesis also provides theoretical purchase for explaining patterns of climate change skepticism among regular citizens. Analyzing nationally representative survey data from multiple waves of the University of Texas Energy Poll, I examine key predictors of climate change skepticism within the US general public. Identification with or trust in groups representing the industrial capitalist system increases the likelihood of climate change skepticism. Also, identification with or trust in groups representing forces of reflexivity (e.g., the environmental movement and scientific community) decreases the likelihood of such skepticism. Further, this study finds that climate change skeptics report policy preferences, voting intentions, and behavioral intentions generally supportive of the existing fossil fuels–based industrial capitalist system.
Read more: https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.324791340628136
The study above defines anti-reflexivity as “… Reflexive Modernization Theory (e.g., Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1990; see also Rosa, Renn, & McCright, 2014) characterizes the current era of late modernity as a distinct stage of advanced industrial society where institutions suffer from legitimacy crises brought on by their inability to effectively solve the ecological and technological problems of modernization. …”
The idea, the “anti-reflexity thesis“, that opposition to climate policies comes from people who miss “the good old days”, who have lost their jobs and way of life because of social and technological progress, this fiction runs deep in liberal circles. The idea has even made it into television series. The following is character Tom Kirkman from the series “Designated Survivor” explaining why industrial jobs are disappearing from the USA and will never return.
But industrial employment didn’t disappear, it was lost to China.
If the reason for job losses in the USA was automation and technological progress, manufacturing would all still all be happening in the USA. The real reason lots of industrial activity moved to China and other parts of Asia, is because China prioritises affordable energy over green fantasies – even their solar panel manufacturing industry is powered by coal.
Green policies are the real job killers, not technology and progress – and people who are most affected by green policies, farmers and industry workers whose profitability utterly depends on affordable energy, are naturally opponents of policies which are wrecking their livelihoods.
Perhaps none of this matters to comfortable establishment media journalists who have no hesitation heaping contempt and scorn on anyone who gets their hands dirty, or anyone who objects to whatever latest green lunacy they champion. Because who cares what happens to farmers and factory workers right? Everyone knows food comes from supermarkets, and most of the stuff they care about is imported.
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