Arek Sinanian

Thank you, Arek, for agreeing to this interview about your book, A Climate for Denial.  This book is very timely. What inspired you to write your book?

I’ve been an environmental management consultant for over 30 years and for the past decade have specialised in climate change and greenhouse gas management.  But for the past six years or so, I have been (and still am) confronted by people, mostly strangers, who openly (and sometimes aggressively) question the science, and in extreme cases, even tell me that it’s a conspiracy.  As these people seem to be intelligent and educated, I wondered why such people would have these views, and with such passion.  Surely, there was something fundamental going on in the psyche of these people, and I wanted to find out what it was.  Or was there something special about climate change that made it difficult for some people to accept its reality?  So, I started investigating and researching the reasons for denial and found that there were many studies that have been done on the cognitive and psychological barriers associated with denial in general, but more specifically, in accepting climate change science.

Importantly, I wanted to remain neutral on the issue of climate change denial.  The book is balanced and certainly not adversarial or judgemental.  It’s all about understanding why people find it difficult to accept the science and hopefully, such understanding will help improve the communication and perhaps in a small way, change the way we deal with this complex global problem.

A Climate for Denial is very readable; very accessible; which leads me to ask about the audience. Who is the intended audience?

There are many books and scientific papers on climate change.  But not many have addressed the denial of climate change science with the general public in mind.  So, essentially, my target audience is the average person in the street.  My aim was to inform people about the general cognitive reasons for denial and also arm people to deal with skeptics and also give them a few ideas on how we can all contribute to a more rational discourse and a way forward to resolve this complex problem.  Instead of spending time on arguing about whether climate change is real, we should discuss how to address it, and that’s difficult enough. So I hope the book helps make that shift.

In A Climate for Denial you discuss reasons why for people reject the science of climate change. Why is important to understand this?

Well, it turns out that denial is a common cognitive defence mechanism and there are many reasons for the denial of climate science.  There are tendencies and factors in us all that affect the lens through which we view many things around us and make decisions on complex issues.  Most prominent of them is ideology or politics.  Then there is age, gender, and religion.  There have been many studies undertaken by academia that correlate these with climate change.  Then there are common cognitive effects such as the Dunning-Kruger effect, cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, solution aversion, and so on.  Then if you combine these in a person, you get a heightened likelihood of climate change denial.

This book gives those of us who are not climate change skeptics very useful ways of responding to deniers.

It’s not easy.  I’ve learnt to ‘be kind’ and tolerant, and to accept that the person I’m dealing with is normal and these cognitive barriers he (yes it’s usually a he) is being constrained by are normal cognitive and behavioural barriers we all experience when we are dealing with a complex and confronting issue.  Denial is predominantly a protective, coping mechanism which we all use (subconsciously) when we need it.  That’s my starting point.  Then I question him on how he became to form his view and gently suggest more credible sources of information on climate change, if he is interested.  My book gives more ideas and also provides references to a number of sources and web sites that explain the science as well as responses to common questions and issues raised by skeptics.

Arek, thank you. We are looking forward to meeting you at the St Albans Writers’ festival.