On Climate Deniers and Climate Money
New research sheds light on the relationship between climate deniers and profit motive
Hi everyone,
Whenever someone not working in climate finds out that I’m a climate investor, there’s inevitably a moment where they want to know what to do about all the climate deniers out there.
My typical optimist’s response is to point them to the longitudinal research by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication that shows America is indeed divided when it comes to climate change, but not in the clear bifurcation between believers and deniers that we often imagine.
Instead, we are Six Americas. These six distinct psychographic segments range from Alarmed to Dismissive, and their numbers are changing every year.
However, even though the Alarmed and Concerned segments continue to add members every year, the Dismissive (denier) group’s size has remained persistent for a decade.
What perpetuates climate denial?
Some recent research sheds new light on the mental models driving, and not driving climate denial, with direct implications for Climate Money.
New results from an experiment conducted by researchers at the University of Bonn and the Institute of Labor Economics found that among people who deny or downplay climate change, having a vested interest in planet-destroying industries or being personally implicated in climate-threatening practices was not a driving factor in denial.
How did they determine this, and if not profit then what perpetuates climate denial?
In today’s episode, we look at climate deniers and climate money.
We also cover:
Results from a recent food labeling study, and what it means for climate messaging
The Islamic Council of Singapore’s first-of-its-kind ruling that cultivated meat is halal and how this could impact consumer adoption of lower carbon proteins across Asia
In case you missed last week’s episode, where we talk AI’s climate footprint and five big takeaways from the IEA’s newly released 170-pg Electricity 2024 report, you can check it out here.
This week’s episode was a bit more reflective than usual, and as we continue to iterate on format, we would love to hear your feedback.
See you next week 👋