John McCain’s acceptance of climate science and the need for climate-change policy will affect the views of rank-
and-file Republicans, or if he will remain a global warming “maverick” within his own party.
Work in Progress
There is much to be done in analyzing how the Conservative Movement has managed to delegitimize
climate science and demonize advocates of climate change policy, and I believe such work deserves equal footing
with sociological research on climate-change causes, impacts, and solutions. I am in the midst of trying to make
some minor contributions.
First, I have recently completed a collaborative study analyzing the links between environmental
skepticism in general and conservative think tanks (Jacques et al., 2008). We located 141 English-language books
published through 2005 that espouse environmental skepticism (defined as questioning environmental science and
the seriousness of environmental problems) and examined their links to conservative think tanks. We found that
130, or 92 percent, of these books were linked to a think tank either by author/editor affiliation, publication by a
think tank, or both. We are now conducting a study of books promoting climate change skepticism per se, which
we expect will total nearly 60 through this year, and will again analyze their links to conservative think tanks.
Second, I am in the midst of an effort to update and expand on portions of the work Aaron McCright and
I did in the 1990s, comparing the visibility of 12 leading skeptic scientists and 12 “elite” mainstream scientists in
terms of media visibility and Congressional testimony.
ReferencesAntilla, Lisa. 2005. “Climate of Skepticism: US Newspaper Coverage of the Science of Climate Change.”
Global Environmental Change 15:338-352.
Benton, Ted. 2001. “Environmental Sociology: Controversy and Continuity.” Sosiologisk Tidsskrift 9:5-48.
Boycoff, Maxwell T. and Jules M. Boycoff. 2004. “Balance as Bias: Global Warming and the US Prestige Press.”
Global Environmental Change 14:125-136.
Brechin, Stephen R. 2003. “Comparative Public Opinion and Knowledge on Global Climatic Change and the
Kyoto Protocol: The US Versus the World?” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 23
(10):106-134.
Burningham, Kate and Geoff Cooper. 1999. “Being Constructive: Social Constructionism and the Environment.”
Sociology 33:297-316.
Demeritt, David. 2006. “Science Studies, Climate Change and the Prospects for Constructivist Critique.”
Economy and Society 35:453-479.
Dispensa, Jaclyn Marisa and Robert J. Brulle. 2003. “Media’s Social Construction of Environmental Issues:
Focus on Global Warming—A Comparative Study.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 23
(10):74-105.
Dunlap, Riley E. 2007. “Sociology of the Environment.” Pp. 1417-1422 in G. Ritzer (ed.), Blackwell Encyclopedia
of Sociology, Vol. 4. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
__. 2008. “Political Polarization on Climate Change: Gap between Republicans and Democrats Grows in
Recent Years.” To be available on the Gallup Organization website.
Dunlap, Riley E. and William R. Catton, Jr. 1994. “Struggling with Human Exemptionalism: The Rise, Decline and
Revitalization of Environmental Sociology.” The American Sociologist 25:5-30.