Bummer: More In Germany Are Becoming Climate Skeptics

All while the Earth is boiling, you know

Germany: As temperatures rise, so does climate skepticism

Climate skeptics are no longer a small but noisy minority. They are now “a mass phenomenon,” according to researchers at Flensburg University.

In a study published in the scientific journal Global Environmental Change, authors Katharina Gies and Emanuel Deutschmann reported that between 2022 and 2023 there was a big jump in skeptical attitudes to climate change among the majority of the 3,074 people surveyed. Some 59% said they had more doubts about climate change in 2023 than they had had in the previous year.

The researchers wrote that the respondents’ individual economic situations could not be considered the primary explanation for the increase in skepticism. Other factors, they said, were much more decisive: A right-leaning political orientation, distrust of state institutions, and dissatisfaction with democracy.

Social psychologist Marlene Altenmüller said the Flensburg publication is important and fascinating, though she has doubts about its alarming tone. Other studies show that “the number of people who have doubts is still very small,” she says. Altenmüller, a junior professor at the Leibniz Institute for Psychology in Trier, conducts research into science reception: How people perceive scientific evidence, and what they think about the scientific system and its researchers.

Obviously, the article and the “researchers” delve into all sorts of gobbledygook, yammering about groups and right wing and conspiracy theories

Both Altenmüller and the Flensburg researchers emphasize that climate change skepticism comes in different guises. One form is the rejection of climate policy measures. The basis for this may be the assumption that it won’t be all that bad, or doubt that human activity is the cause. Another is the belief that all the talk about climate change is simply a con, a conspiracy.

Well, maybe seeing all the biggest believers refusing to practice what they preach makes them wonder if it is all a bunch of BS. I mean, hell, when you see the head of the UN take a long fossil fueled trip, including a private jet and a helicopter ride, to go to view Mt. Everest and complain about climate doom, you might has some doubts.