What drives climate change denial can simply be explained as the product of a massively organised campaign to convince people that it is ‘crap’ – in former Prime Minister Tony Abbot’s words – or ‘a hoax’ in Donald Trump’s view.

Recently Environmental Research: Energy published an article – Fossil Fuel Industry Communication Strategies and Public Responses: A Scoping Review – which lays out the realities that Trump and Abbott deny.

Research for the paper was undertaken by the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. Its findings were based on all peer-review studies published between 1988 and 2025 which examined how fossil fuel companies communicate about climate change.

Not surprisingly the companies frame themselves as essential to economic growth and technological innovation while shifting the responsibility for climate action to consumers and simultaneously casting doubt on climate science or shifting responsibility to consumers.

But the authors say there has been surpassingly little research on how the industry’s communication strategies influence the public and very limited attention to broader impacts and outcomes.

The result – we know a lot about climate change but remarkably little about how current fossil fuel industry messages affect public trust, social licence and support for climate policy, the authors say.

We know that the Global Climate Coalition – an alliance covering petroleum, automative, manufacturing and mining industry have been mobilising funding to oppose greenhouse gas regulations for decades – despite the industry knowing since the 1950s – thanks to oil industry funded research on the effects of pollution and burning fossil fuels – was warming the planet.

The industries involved also knew that there were many ‘useful idiots’ – as the Russian Communist Party had described people who could be inveigled into supporting Russia and communism – would join their climate denial party.

Science Insights (16 March 2026) looked at the denial problem and identified a number of factors feeding denial.

The first, they say, is the problem of cognitive dissonance which is the tension that rises when new facts clash with existing beliefs. This leads to ‘motivated reasoning: the tendency to interpret evidence that protects what you already believe.

Needless to say, political ideology is the most consistent predictor of scepticism and the more conservative you are the more likely you are to doubt the reality of climate change.

Research published in Nature also found that many people over-estimate the cost of climate mitigation policies – an over-estimate fuelled by the fossil fuel industries.

Science Insights also suggested the attitudes are also shaped by ‘system justification’ a psychological tendency to defend and rationalise the existing social and economic order – particularly when it feels threatened.

In a scoping review, George Mason research highlighted what fossil fuel companies say and what communication strategies and public responses are employed.

They include emphasising the industry’s role in economic growth jobs and energy security; technological optimism promoting the idea that technology and innovation will solve climate problems; greenwashing environmental initiatives to portray the industry as ‘green’ and responsible; doubt-mongering by questioning the science; identity co-optation aligning with cultural values, national identity and community interests; and, individualised responsibility putting the focus on individual actions rather than systemic change.

Yet there is increasing evidence that public attitudes are changing.

The US Data for Progress polling firm, undertaking polling for The Guardian (21 July 2026)   found that in the US 61% of likely voters believe extreme weather events have become more common over the past five years. 63% of Republicans believe so and 72% of independents.

61% of voters believe the number of extreme weather events has increased over the past five years.

Majorities linked climate change to worsening wildfires (64%); droughts 63%; flooding and flash flooding (62%); and 67% said climate change is making all these meteorological trends more common.

Anthony Leiserwitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication highlighted the fact that Americans are increasingly linking extreme weather events to the climate crisis and want to protect workers from heat.

The denialists are still prospering but eventually reality will condemn them to – another Russian communist era curse – the dustbin of history.