Overview

As wildfires rip across the western United States and sea levels rise along coastal cities from Louisiana to Alaska, some people nevertheless reject the mainstream scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change. What leads people to doubt or outright denial? What leads skeptics to change their minds? Drawing from a rich collection of interviews and surveys with self-identified climate change skeptics (and some former ones), sociologists Kristin Haltinner and Dilshani Sarathchandra delve into the underlying dynamics of climate skepticism in the United States. In probing how ideas about science, religion, politics, and media affect perceptions of climate change, they find a far greater diversity of attitudes and beliefs than one might expect-including some pro-environmental views. With this nuanced understanding of climate change skepticism, Inside the World of Climate Change Skeptics offers much-needed insights on improving communication in ways that can move us toward a better future while advancing environmental policies with widespread political support.

Full Product Details

9780295751290

Table of Contents

Reviews

""One significant contribution of the book is the authors' emphasis that there is a continuum to climate skepticism (rather than it being a dichotomy between deniers and everyone else). . . . Another strength of the book is its strong and relatively exhaustive review of the literature. The authors have done a great job of identifying relevant sources, including those outside of sociology, in disciplines such as psychology, environmental studies, and communication, and for this reason alone, the book will be valuable to students of climate skepticism. . . . The book is an obvious choice for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in environmental sociology and the sociology of climate change, and perhaps also for courses on the sociology of knowledge and science; but it is also sufficiently accessible to be of great interest to the general reader."" -- ""Contemporary Sociology""

Author Information

Kristin Haltinner is associate professor of sociology at the University of Idaho. Dilshani Sarathchandra is associate professor of sociology at the University of Idaho.

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