Environmental skepticism is the perspective that global environmental problems are either unreal, not related to human activities, or unimportant and which therefore advocates against political behavior to regulate environmental problems. The most prominent position in environmental skepticism is the rejection of mainstream climate science, referred to variously as climate skepticism or climate denial. The Associated Press stylebook suggests the use of the term “climate doubters” for those who reject mainstream climate science.

Terminology

The terminology used to label this perspective is debated both by scholars and by people who hold this perspective. The word skepticism is said to imply the normal healthy skepticism that is foundational to everyday science, yet environmental skepticism rejects aspects of everyday environmental science, and individual “skeptics” are not generally waiting for new ...

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