I don’t think I know a single climate campaigner – or even person who cares about climate change – who hasn’t, at least once, had a difficult encounter with a climate science denier.

Why do I call them deniers? Because they are actively opposing the science and campaigning against it. They don’t, like a normal sceptic, challenge the science through peer review, but rather use underhand tactics and dirty tricks. Your unbelieving uncle at the family gathering probably isn’t in the same “denier” category but has simply been taken in by their campaigning.

We probably would all give mixed reports as to how well that encounter went and had thoughts about the conversation afterward: should I have given more detailed arguments? Should I have ignored them altogether? What should I have said?

There are no easy answers. But having followed and watched the development of the climate denial campaign, there’s one thing I’m sure of.

Climate denial is about politics, not science

Climate science denial is so much more about politics, and a lot less about the science. The more I’ve looked into the background and history of climate science denial, the more convinced I’ve become of this. It’s all set out in the report I just wrote for Greenpeace: Dealing in Doubt.

Deniers learnt their trade at the knee of the early science deniers in the tobacco industry, which even funded denier campaigns in the 1990′s to try to make the science of second hand smoke look more “politically correct.”

Over the last two decades, we’ve found that climate denial campaigns have been tied directly to the efforts to tackle climate change, oiled by fossil fuel industry money, money that has largely been given to a number of think tanks.

These think tanks also have the neo-liberal, right wing, small government, freemarket agenda. So it’s hardly surprising that the science of climate change has become politicised. Poll after poll show that climate denial is divided along party lines, especially in the US.

The more conservative the politics, the more likely they are to be a climate denier. In the UK, it’s the UK Independence Party, who have denier Lord Christopher Monckton as their deputy (by the way, he IS a Lord, just not a member of the House of Lords). In the US, the Koch-funded Tea Party section of the Republican party is the most sceptic of climate scientists.

A small band of deniers have gone a long way

While they’ve gained more traction with the advancement of the internet and social media, and a lot more support, especially in the US, it’s been quite a small band of actors who’ve been running the show since the outset.

As Steve Milloy (who also worked for an early think tank set up by Philip Morris) has admitted “there’s only about 25 of us.” This team has been deployed by think tanks such as The Heartland Institute and Americans for Prosperity, funded by big business, the Koch Brothers and ExxonMobil, amongst others.

The arguments

There have been a number of different websites and posts about “how to talk with a denier.” They talk about how to tackle the various arguments they come up with, with facts and science. Those facts and figures can be found on a number of websites, but I find www.skepticalscience.com to be the best. I’m not going to go into this in great detail as I’m an expert on the politics, not the science itself (I’m happy to go with the consensus here).

Don’t debate them

The problem is, a climate denier will want to get into that sort of argument with you, especially if it’s in a public forum. Why? Because anyone looking on will think there’s still a debate to be had. And if they think there’s still a debate around the science, then they won’t be convinced of the need to take action.

So the first thing is: don’t get into that debate! Especially in public. Don’t accept that media invitation to “counter” the denier. These people want a debate, because debate creates doubt. Your refusal to get into this debate is a powerful message to a journalist.

Talk about the consensus

There’s more research around that is comforting: that, generally, the public does understand consensus. Other research shows that if you start talking about the 97% of who agree that humans are causing climate change, then you’ll bring most of your audience along with you.

This argument was one that floored UK denier and blogger for The Daily Telegraph, James Delingpole, when he was interviewed for a BBC documentary (it’s well worth a watch). The interviewer’s approach was something like:

• If you had cancer, would you go with the consensus view around your treatment? Or would you go with a range of other, non-experts, to give you advice?

Other analogies include:

• If 97% of engineers told you the plane you were about to board was going to crash, would you get on it?
• There is now more consensus around climate change than there is about the links between smoking and cancer.

Question the background of the deniers

Of course you’re not a climate scientist, and there’s a strong chance that the person you’re talking to isn’t either. So it’s the case with many of the climate deniers out there who are not experts – or have not published – in that field.

While the denier you’re talking to might not have any direct connection at all with the fossil fuel industry, you can be sure that the arguments they run have come directly from industry-funded scientists and campaigns. And you should say that.

Deniers increasingly seen as “out of touch”

Polls in the US of under-35 year olds show that they think the Republican deniers in the US House are “out of touch” and “crazy”. This age bracket is more likely to be your audience, so you can be confident that some of this messaging will get through.

Move right along

Thankfully, the majority of the climate denial campaigns have concentrated in English-speaking countries, namely the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Although there is a big pocket of deniers in coal-ridden Eastern Europe, led by former Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus. A study of climate denial in six countries has confirmed this.

In the global south, in our experience, there are far fewer climate deniers, not least because people are now feeling the direct effects of climate impacts.

Have some fun

One of the best ways to deal with deniers is through humour. In Australia and New Zealand, there have been several outings by “The Flat Earth Society”, a tactic some of you might enjoy rolling out if there is a climate sceptic event in your area. Deniers may well expect protest at such events, but not a bunch of people desperate to be friends with them. It goes like this:

Flat Earthers have been fighting a global governmental and scientific conspiracy for centuries, and finally they’ve found another bunch of people who also think there’s a global conspiracy: the climate deniers. So they want to be friends. They dress in medieval costume – because of course the Medieval Warming Period is a favourite climate denier meme.

The main objective here is to get their audience laughing at them, and connecting them with people who rejected the science of a global planet.

Cindy has been working on climate and obsessing about deniers since 1991. She is a co-author of “www.exxonsecrets.org” and has authored two editions of “Dealing in Doubt” for Greenpeace.

Image credit: adapted from work by Mykl Roventine