Breaking News: Weapons of Mass Distraction Deployed to Fight Scientific Consensus on Climatic Changes

Abstract

In 2001, two important scientific groups, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the National Research Council, published the results of two of the most extensive (and ongoing) research projects on climatic changes. They both express scientific consensus on the fact that anthropogenically induced climatic disruptions are here to stay and that they perhaps represent the most decisive policy issue of our time. A concerted effort to distract and even attack the legitimacy and expertise over this scientific consensus has been quite effective, so much so that to this day, there is no clear federal climate policy in the making. Bill’s (and my) work on “Weapons of Mass Distraction” may prove to be a handy analytic tool to understand this blunt attack on the evidence-base scientific consensus.

Citation

Alario, M.V. (2013), "Breaking News: Weapons of Mass Distraction Deployed to Fight Scientific Consensus on Climatic Changes", William R. Freudenburg, A Life in Social Research (Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 225-232. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0196-1152(2013)0000021014