This is the second installment of Dunlap, Jacques' (2013) study of the history of our dysfunctional climate science education dialogue. They focused on the influence of "conservative think tanks (CTTs) on the output of "skeptical" book publications.
Here are facts about why out and out lying has been allowed to became the mainstay of the Republican climate science contrarian PR strategy Facts that it would be good for younger activists to be aware of. Given that the study has a CCA License I've decided to Repost the complete text in a few installments. It will be a valuable addition to my collection of resources for the serious student of the attack on science. I thank Riley Dunlap and Peter Jacques for the opportunity to Repost their impressive work.
Am Behav Sci. 2013 Jun; 57(6): 699–731.
Climate Change Denial Books and Conservative Think Tanks - Part two
Copyright © 2013 SAGE Publications
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Books Challenging Climate Science
Although just one of many forms of media employed by CTTs, books are especially important for reaching the conservative movement’s core constituency, wider segments of the public, and critical sectors of society such as corporate, political, and media leaders.
Books confer a sense of legitimacy on their authors and provide them an effective tool for combating the findings of climate scientists that are published primarily in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals—at least within the public and policy (as opposed to scientific) arenas.
Authors of successful books critiquing climate science often come to be viewed as “climate experts,” regardless of their academic backgrounds or scientific credentials, and despite the fact that their books are seldom peer reviewed. They are interviewed on TV and radio, quoted by newspaper columnists, and cited by sympathetic politicians and corporate figures.
