{"id":98978,"date":"2023-04-04T13:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T17:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=98978"},"modified":"2023-04-13T09:12:17","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T13:12:17","slug":"truth-about-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/truth-about-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Who&#8217;s Not Telling the Whole Truth About Climate Change?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Whom can we trust to report <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/climate-change-science\/\">climate science<\/a> accurately? Why would anyone twist the facts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steven E. Koonin argues that climate science is frequently misconstrued, and he attempts to diagnose the root of this problem. He accuses various parties of distorting climate science and explains some of the biases and motivations that appear to be behind the misrepresentations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue reading to learn who&#8217;s not telling the whole truth about climate change\u2014and why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Parties That Distort Climate Science<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Koonin argues that an array of parties bear responsibility for misrepresenting climate science, we\u2019ll focus on three main ones: the media, politicians, and climate scientists themselves. According to Koonin, these parties knowingly misrepresent climate science out of their own self-interest, resulting in a harmful shortage of truth about climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-party-1-the-media\">Party #1: The Media<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>First, Koonin argues that <strong>the media\u2019s climate stories often sacrifice accuracy in exchange for engagement<\/strong>. He clarifies that, because the media is a business, news outlets compete with one another for engagement\u2014in the age of the internet, they compete for clicks. This business model leads to far-fetched headlines and stories, as such stories generate more engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the case of climate news, this incentivizes incendiary headlines, such as \u201cClimate Scientists Warn of Incoming Doom.\u201d In contrast, Koonin claims that more accurate headlines, such as, \u201cClimate Scientists Unsure Whether <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-are-sea-levels-rising\/\">Rising Sea Levels<\/a> the Result of Human Influences,\u201d aren\u2019t newsworthy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>How <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negativity-bias-definition-examples\/\">Negativity Bias<\/a> Might Influence Climate Headlines<\/strong><br><br>The incendiary nature of climate headlines reflects a general trend of news becoming increasingly somber. Indeed, data scientist Kalev Leetaru finds that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/kalevleetaru\/2019\/05\/14\/sentiment-mining-500-years-of-history-is-the-world-really-darkening\/?sh=6dd294b935ef\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">between 1945 and 2005, <em>New York Times <\/em>articles grew increasingly negative<\/a>, which he views as evidence of lower levels of happiness as the century progressed.<br><br>Moreover, although consumers often claim to lament the negative state of the news, researchers find that in an experimental setting, <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/1940161214524832?etoc=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">consumers actually <em>prefer <\/em>to read negative stories rather than positive ones<\/a>, when given the opportunity. According to these researchers, it\u2019s possible that this preference stems from negativity bias\u2014the fact that <a href=\"https:\/\/thedecisionlab.com\/biases\/negativity-bias\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">humans assign negative information more weight than positive information<\/a>.&nbsp;<br><br>With respect to climate headlines in particular, then, it\u2019s plausible that the alarming headlines that Koonin describes likewise play off our negativity bias. Simply put, we prefer to read negative news, and so are more attracted to negative climate change headlines. In turn, this explains why climate headlines featuring alarmist language attract more engagement than hopeful headlines.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-party-2-politicians\">Party #2: Politicians<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, Koonin argues that <strong>politicians oversimplify complex issues to instill passion and loyalty in voters to win elections<\/strong>. Simple messages, Koonin claims, convey confidence and stoke voters\u2019 passion, while voters view nuanced messages as a sign of uncertainty and weakness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consequently, with regard to climate change, politicians choose to convey uncompromising messages that win them votes. For progressives, this might involve claiming that climate change is an apocalyptic threat requiring drastic actions; for conservatives, this might involve claiming that climate change is simply a hoax. So, Koonin concludes that politicians across the political spectrum misrepresent climate science to their own benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Evidence suggests that these views have gotten more entrenched in recent years; one 2019 study reports that, since 2010, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/00139157.2019.1589300\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">increasing percentage of Democrats view climate change as a serious threat<\/a>, while an increasing percentage of conservative Republicans denies that climate change is a threat altogether.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-party-3-climate-scientists\">Party #3: Climate Scientists<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, Koonin argues that <strong>climate scientists face external pressures to pump up their findings<\/strong>. For instance, journals prefer to publish conclusive results, which obscures the uncertainty that afflicts climate science. Similarly, grant foundations only renew funding for researchers with clear findings, which encourages scientists to downplay any doubt in their findings. Moreover, climate scientists\u2019 own peers expect them to conform to the narrative that climate change is catastrophic since that justifies the field\u2019s importance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Some journals\u2019 unwillingness to publish inconclusive results is a form of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/publication-bias-in-research-2\/\">publication bias<\/a><\/em>, the practice of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/research-bias\/publication-bias\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">selectively publishing articles based on their results<\/a>. In this case, publication bias may make it easier to publish articles with positive results about climate change than those with negative results about climate change.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whom can we trust to report climate science accurately? Why would anyone twist the facts? Steven E. Koonin argues that climate science is frequently misconstrued, and he attempts to diagnose the root of this problem. He accuses various parties of distorting climate science and explains some of the biases and motivations that appear to be behind the misrepresentations. Continue reading to learn who&#8217;s not telling the whole truth about climate change\u2014and why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":98990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,275,160],"tags":[976],"class_list":["post-98978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethics","category-politics","category-science","tag-unsettled","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Who&#039;s Not Telling the Whole Truth About Climate Change? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Several parties misrepresent climate science out of self-interest, leading to a shortage of truth about climate change. Learn who they are.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/truth-about-climate-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who&#039;s Not Telling the Whole Truth About Climate Change?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Several parties misrepresent climate science out of self-interest, leading to a shortage of truth about climate change. 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