Foundations of climate change denial: Anti-environmentalism and anti-science

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0334544 November 12, 2025 2 / 23 I. Introduction Despite the consensus of over 99% of climate scientists that the Earth is warming primarily because of human-caused greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions and that this warming has serious negative impacts [1–3], a recent national poll found that only a little over half (53%) of the American public believes that “most scientists think global warming is happening” while a quarter (25%) believe that “there is a lot of disagree- ment among scientists” on whether it is happening [4]. To a large extent, this misunderstanding reflects the impact of an organized cli- mate change countermovement (CCCM) centered in the US which has cast doubt on anthropogenic global warming (AGW) and climate science among the public and policymakers for over three decades [5]. The CCCM was launched by fossil fuel corporations and other corporate actors dependent on fossil fuel use to protect their interests and was quickly joined by the US Conservative Movement well estab- lished in the literature [6–8]. This effort has evolved over time from mainstream conservative efforts (e.g., protecting markets from regulation) to now include more far-right programs. In the US this started with the Tea Party movement [9]. The literature indicates that the climate denial connection to the far-right include white power (whether stated or implied) [10,11], authoritarian tendencies [12] as well as specific far-right alliances to the fossil fuel industry [13] of contemporary climate denial [14,15].

Ekberg writes that climate denial has “clear signs of alliance with far-right actors” [16]. Literature characterizing the “far-right” [17], argues that the label “conservative” underappreciates the AGW denial is part of the CCCM’s reactionary effort to protect the status quo against progressive interests calling for change, especially in Ameri- can society and protect the socioeconomic system based on a free-market economy with its promise of endless growth and unlimited progress-- to defend the “Western way of life” writ large [18–20]. It is increasingly recognized that the roots of AGW denial thus go much deeper than protecting the fossil fuel industry, which has literally fueled economic growth in the U.S. and much of the rest of the world for well over a century [21–23]. Yet, analyses of the claims used by the CCCM have not yet suffi- ciently verified these speculations. There have been a number of empirical analyses of the claims issued by the CCCM over the past quarter century, and they have become increasingly sophis- ticated in terms of the collection and analyses of ever larger bodies of data [see especially [7,24–26]. We will review the most relevant studies shortly, but despite the insight they have provided into the nature and evolution of denial claims, we believe they fail to probe deeply enough to elucidate the fundamental, underlying rationale of AGW denial or what Lejano and Nero [23] label its “genetic narrative” or “DNA.” This paper reports our effort to achieve this goal by employing an in-depth qualitative

content analysis (QCA) of a large number of books (108) espousing AGW denial [27]. We use a two-stage analytical approach, employing deductive and then inductive contextual thematic content analysis to read and code the books, yielding results that shed light on the underlying rationale for denial at a deeper level than currently exists in the literature. and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data availability statement: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.