Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Denialism: what is it and how should scientists respond?

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Denialism: what is it and how should scientists respond?

from the European Journal of Public Health. You will need to scroll down to the article. It starts with "Black is white and white is black".

This is not a very current article that I normally post, but it is a good one given the mass media campaign to discredit any research which shows that climate change is real and man-made. I wonder, though, if the denialists won't go into hiding for a while given the fact that the Gulf of Mexico is filling up with oil, and we've only begun to see the devastating environmental consequences. Although they may continue to deny that the burning of fossil fuels is causing climate change, they may find it difficult to continue to deny that the mad pursuit of mining fossil fuels is causing environmental havoc.

Denialism is a process that employs some or all of five characteristic elements in a concerted way.