Is it Big Oil, or is it Rupert Murdoch?
by David Atkins
An almost throwaway line in a Guardian article today on climate change denialism is food for serious thought:
Rejection of human-caused global warming was most prevalent in the USA, UK, and Australia, with Canada not far behind in 7th.
These four countries also share the commonality of highly influential fossil fuel industries, and the wide reach of the Murdoch media empire, known for its global warming denial.
The fact that these are all Anglophone nations says something culturally, probably. You might argue that the fact that so much oil production happens in most of the Anglophone nations, resulting in a powerful oil industry, might be a factor–except that many other nations with major oil reserves don’t share the phenomenon.
Most commentators blame American climate rejection on our particularly corrupt political system. But that claim grows weaker when you throw Canada and Australia into the mix.
The common denominator is Murdoch. I’m still skeptical, since I don’t think Fox News and tabloid journalism have quite the reach that many people think they do. But these stats on climate denialism are such that Murdoch media’s influence may be wider and more pernicious than I had thought.
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