‘Global warming is not a crisis!’: Studying climate change skepticism on the Web

This article makes a contribution to the study of the climate controversy by using Web data to research the status of skepticism within the climate debate. In March 2008 the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based libertarian public policy think-tank, organised the first international conference for climate change skeptics with the theme 'Can You Hear Us Now? Global Warming is Not a Crisis!' 1 The event format was that of a traditional scientific conference with three days of parallel sessions and keynote speakers as well as online proceedings. In his opening remarks Heartland's president Joseph L. Bast stressed that the conference featured talks by over 200 scientists and other experts from leading universities and organisations from all over the world. Bast stated that [t]hese scientists and economists have been published thousands of times in the world's leading scientific journals and have written hundreds of books. If you call this the fringe, where's the center? 2 Other descriptions of climate change skeptics be it by watchdogs, journalists, or scientific analysts paint a less flattering picture. Scholars emphasise how skeptics effectively keep the climate controversy alive. 3 Skeptics are often criticised for having strong ties to industry as described in books such as Merchants of Doubt and Doubt is their Product, as well as the report 'Smoke, Mirrors and Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics