A history of climate denialism

WAMU 88.5 | By Haili Blassingame

Published September 13, 2023 at 12:15 PM PDT

Barbijo penguins (Pygoscelis antarcticus) are seen at Orne Harbour in South Shetland Islands, Antarctica.

In 1956,The New York Timespredicted that once global warming took effect, we could see parrots in the Antarctic.

That was nearly seven decades ago. There aren’t parrots in Antarctica, but the impact of climate change is loud and clear.

We’re currently experiencing the hottest summer on record. Ocean surface temperatures in the Florida Keys hit 90 degrees this July. And one recent study found that Antarctica is likely warming at twice the rate as the rest of the world — faster than the predictions made by many climate change models.

How did the country go from recognizing the threat of climate change to doing little to address it for 60 years?

Writer David Lipsky’s new book, “The Parrot and the Igloo: Climate and the Science of Denial,” is about the people who got in the way of climate progress.

Or in his own words, this is the story of, “The people who made our world; then the people who realized there might be a problem; then the people who lied about the problem.”

We talk to Lipsky about the history and rise of climate denialism.