Motivated reasoning explains how climate change deniers can maintain their beliefs in the face of disconfirming evidence, suggesting that, compared to believers, the online comments of climate change deniers are more likely to (a) reference independent and social media websites advocating ideologically congruent positions, (b) politicize the issue, and (c) use intensifiers (e.g., definitely, undoubtedly). Automated text analysis of 156,844 comments from subreddit communities with opposing perspectives on climate change identified the internet domains associated with hyperlinks and the frequencies of political terms and intensifiers in user comments. Results were consistent with motivated reasoning by climate change deniers. In addition, climate change believers were more likely than deniers to use qualifiers in their comments.
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Multiple studies indicate changes in the properties of Antarctic bottom water (AABW) over the past half century. These changes involve density and hence will affect both local and distant circulation of the oceans, not least overturning effects that are vital for marine biology but also climate and weather far distant from Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. While we can see what s happening, our understanding of what s driving change is incomplete. By synthesizing multiple observational channels in a uniquely suitable region, Kathryn Gunn et al. produce an important increment in our understanding of what s perturbing this system in Recent reduced abyssal overturning and ventilation in the Australian Antarctic Basin, just published in Nature Climate Change. It looks as though glacial meltwater is an growingly important factor. The paper confirms and extends prior indication that substantial change is occurring in Antarctic bottom waters. This a
A university course teaches students why people believe false and evidence-starved claims, to show them how to determine what’s accurate and real and what’s neither.