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Climate change—that is not real! A comparative analysis of climate-sceptic think tanks in the USA and Germany

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  • Timo Busch

    (Universitat Hamburg)

  • Lena Judick

    (Universitat Hamburg)

Abstract

The science is clear: climate change is real. In 2015, 195 countries adopted the global climate deal in Paris. Nonetheless, numerous well-organized conservative think tanks (CTTs) deny that climate change is happening. We ask what kind of counterclaims are used by climate-sceptic CTTs and to what extent these counterclaims change over time. We analyse about 2500 blog articles from prominent CTTs in the USA and Germany between 2008 and 2016. Our results show that sceptical arguments about climate policy and science dominate the countermovement. At the same time, we detect that the prevalence of counterclaims is CTT-specific and that US think tanks show a greater variability compared to their German counterparts. In a surprising outcome, we find that the Paris Agreement did not affect the climate denial movement. Based on these insights, we discuss our contributions to social movement research in the climate change denial context and derive conclusions for pro-climate campaigns.

Suggested Citation

  • Timo Busch & Lena Judick, 2021. "Climate change—that is not real! A comparative analysis of climate-sceptic think tanks in the USA and Germany," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 1-23, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:164:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-021-02962-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-021-02962-z
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    2. Sam Crawley & Hilde Coffé & Ralph Chapman, 2022. "Climate Belief and Issue Salience: Comparing Two Dimensions of Public Opinion on Climate Change in the EU," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 307-325, July.
    3. Castelló-Sirvent, Fernando & García-García, Juan Manuel, 2022. "Exploring the language heterogeneity strategies of European think tanks," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    4. Dylan Bugden, 2022. "Denial and distrust: explaining the partisan climate gap," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 1-23, February.
    5. Vanessa Roger‐Monzó & Fernando Castelló‐Sirvent, 2023. "Soft power in global governance: fsQCA of thematic specialization strategies of European think tanks," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(2), pages 288-304, May.

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