Dan Kahan's analysis of the 'controversy' over climate change is insightful up to a point (Nature 488, 255; 2012). But there is one crucial factor that he does not mention: money.
The climate-change controversy has been created by a tiny group of people whose livelihoods depend on it. Oil and its derivatives have made these people extremely rich, so they perpetrate the idea that climate change induced by the use of fossil fuels is a myth to ensure that they stay that way.
The public is prey to a systematic campaign to pollute the science-communication environment (as Kahan so aptly puts it), backed by vast wealth. This campaign is being indirectly abetted by the US Supreme Court, which has declared that political groups may spend limitless amounts of money without identifying themselves.
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DeCoursey, T. Follow the money on climate controversy. Nature 489, 502 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/489502b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/489502b