Label obsession degrades coverage of climate change

Sept. 25, 2015
If the politics of climate change must begin and end with name-calling, a squabble about labels can seem serious.

If the politics of climate change must begin and end with name-calling, a squabble about labels can seem serious.

The Center for Skeptical Inquiry wants to brand hard opponents of aggressive precaution “deniers.”

In an open letter last December, the group asked journalists to favor the D-word for “those who deny reality but do not engage in scientific research or consider evidence that their deeply held opinions are wrong.” This summer, ClimateTruth.org sent a petition supporting the letter to editors of the AP Stylebook.

“Proper skepticism promotes scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims,” the letter said. “Denial, on the other hand, is the a priori rejection of ideas without objective consideration.”

Acknowledging “not all individuals who call themselves climate change skeptics are deniers,” the letter regretted that “virtually all deniers have falsely branded themselves as skeptics.”

It said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who has called global warming a hoax, can’t call himself a skeptic.

Between Inhofe’s stance and equally extreme positions at the opposite political pole, legitimate questions await answers.

How sensitive is global average temperature to a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? How and in what net direction do feedbacks work? Why isn’t observed warming intensifying in accordance with model predictions?

Signers of the letter and petition probably offer certain answers. Many climate scientists, however, have contrary, equally certain thoughts that receive little press.

Part of the reason for the attention skew is resort by made-up minds to propaganda.

Insistence on the term “denier,” for example, obviously attempts to associate dissenters with substance abusers “in denial” about their problems.

The AP wasn’t fooled. On Sept. 22, it announced a preference for the word “doubters” over either “deniers” or “skeptics.”

Yet this enshrines the phrase “climate change doubters?” Who doubts climate change?

Reporters would write more usefully about climate change if they paid more attention to what people said on the subject and less about what to call them.

(From the subscription area of www.ogj.com, posted Sept. 25, 2015; author’s e-mail: [email protected])