WHY DO MEN DENY CLIMATE CHANGE & WOMEN GET IT?

COP15: Climate 'scepticism' and questions about sex
Richard Black, 15 December 2009 (BBC News)

"Why are virtually all climate "sceptics" men?

"…[G]o down [the UK Guardian’s sceptics] list... Bjorn Lomborg, Viscount Monckton, former TV presenter David Bellamy, British National Party leader Nick Griffin, Freakonomics authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Lord Lawson, social anthropologist Benny Peiser, geologist Ian Plimer, US Senator James Inhofe, Czech President Vaclav Klaus... all men…[Copenhagen speakers for the sceptical] International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC)…Nils-Axel Morner, Cliff Ollier, Stuart Wheeler…[The sceptical] Global Warming Policy Foundation numbers a single woman across its Board of Trustees and Academic Advisory Council…"

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"…[T]he female contingent numbers one UK columnist, a couple of Australian bloggers, UK academic Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen and US counterpart Sallie Baliunas... [and] former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin who…hasn't always displayed climate scepticism…[In] mainstream climate science…[there are] a number of eminent female practitioners including IPCC lead authors Susan Solomon and Cynthia Rosenzweig…[and] many [UN climate talk] delegations include, and are led by, women…So what's going on? Why is this issue such a gender-divider?

"…There are two distinct views of why climate scepticism exists in the way it does…One - promulgated by many sceptics themselves - speaks to a rigorous, analytical deconstruction of a deeply-flawed scientific edifice that is maintained by a self-interested cabal of tax-hungry politicians and careerist scientists…The other is that climate scepticism has psychological roots; that it stems from a deep-seated inability or unwillingness to accept the overwhelming evidence that humanity has built with coal and lubricated with oil its own handcart whose destination board reads "climate hell"…Perhaps an answer to the gender issue will help illuminate this much bigger and politically significant question."

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"… A recent survey across the EU found roughly equal levels of scepticism between the genders…But a report from the Center for American Progress…[identified] six categories [of concern] about man-made climate change, from "alarmed" through to "dismissive"…[A]t the margins the [gender] divide was absolutely stark…[63%] of the Dismissive are men…[The Dismissives are also more likely] to be high income, well-educated, white men...very conservative Republicans... strongly endorse individualistic values, opposing any form of government intervention…prefer economic growth over environmental protection...[and] have a specialized media diet…for media sources that reflect their own political point of view…

"…[But this does not explain] why men and women diverge so much on their tendency to be "dismissive"…Men's greater taste for risk-taking behaviour is well documented…[Is it taking] risks that would be less appealing to women?…What about empathy? …[But this] still can't explain why virtually all prominent sceptics are men…[Y]ou'd expect one third to be women…[I]n more than a decade of reporting on environmental issues, I've never come across a gender divide like it…"