• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

RealClimate

Climate science from climate scientists...

  • Start here
  • Model-Observation Comparisons
  • Miscellaneous Climate Graphics
  • Surface temperature graphics
You are here: Home / Archives for Book review

Book review

Handbook in Denialism

4 May 2011 by rasmus

It would not surprise me if the denialists would deny the existence of the new book by Haydn Washington and John Cook (skepticalscience.com) ‘Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand‘. Somehow, I don’t think they will read it – but they are not target group of this book either. Anyway, denialism is, according to the book, a common human trait – we should all know somebody who deny one thing thing or another.

Furthermore, denial is not the same as being skeptical, either, and Washington and Cook argue it is quite the opposite. Hence, the term “skeptics” for these deniers can be described as Orwellian “doublespeak”“newspeak”.

Denial is apparently caused by our lizard brainstem. What coincidence then, when talking about fossil fuels from plants from the era of huge long dead lizards (the fossil fuels are not made of the dinosaurs), that denying evidence for anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is linked to that lizard part of the brain. So, what about using the labels ‘reptiles’ or ‘dinos’? Washington and Cook opt for ‘deniers’, and so will I hereafter.

[Read more…] about Handbook in Denialism

Filed Under: Climate Science, Reviews Tagged With: Book review

Primary Sidebar

Search

Search for:

Email Notification

get new posts sent to you automatically (free)
Loading

Recent Posts

  • Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • The most recent climate status
  • Unforced variations: May 2025
  • Unforced Variations: Apr 2025
  • WMO: Update on 2023/4 Anomalies

Our Books

Book covers
This list of books since 2005 (in reverse chronological order) that we have been involved in, accompanied by the publisher’s official description, and some comments of independent reviewers of the work.
All Books >>

Recent Comments

  • E. Schaffer on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barton Paul Levenson on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barton Paul Levenson on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Barton Paul Levenson on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Kevin McKinney on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barry E Finch on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barry E Finch on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barry E Finch on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • CherylJosie on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Paul Pukite (@whut) on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Kevin McKinney on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Kevin McKinney on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Kevin McKinney on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Pedro Prieto on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Kevin McKinney on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Pedro Prieto on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Pedro Prieto on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • CherylJosie on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Pedro Prieto on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Pedro Prieto on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time

Footer

ABOUT

  • About
  • Translations
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Page
  • Login

DATA AND GRAPHICS

  • Data Sources
  • Model-Observation Comparisons
  • Surface temperature graphics
  • Miscellaneous Climate Graphics

INDEX

  • Acronym index
  • Index
  • Archives
  • Contributors

Realclimate Stats

1,367 posts

11 pages

244,108 comments

Copyright © 2025 · RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists.