Introduction

Industrial societies have developed through the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels. Many of the most powerful industries in the United States, both historically and at present, depend upon the use of fossil fuels. Also, the fortunes of many of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the United States are founded within the fossil fuels industry. Further, a very large proportion of the manufacturing jobs in the United States are connected with the use of these fuels. Thus it is not surprising that proposals to substantially reduce their use, or even just to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases from their use, to mitigate the effects of climate change encounter stunning obstacles and are seen as deeply threatening by powerful economic and political actors.

A coordinated anti-environmental countermovement (see, e.g., Austin, 2002; Beder, 1997; Helvarg, 1994; Switzer, 1997) has mobilized in the United States since the late 1980s to challenge the legitimacy of climate change as a problem on which society should act. This response includes both massive lobbying efforts by the American fossil fuels industry (e.g., Gelbspan, 1997; Levy and Egan, 1998; Newell, 2000) and concerted efforts by American conservative think tanks to question the necessity of dealing with climate change (e.g., Luke, 2000; McCright and Dunlap, 2000, 2003). Integral to these efforts has been the promotion of approximately a dozen scientists collectively known as climate change “contrarians” (or sometimes “skeptics”).