Climate change denial is a right-wing conspiracy

A mystery surrounds the shape of the Sun - it is just too perfectly round, say scientists (GETTY IMAGES)

Drought and temperatures hot enough to stop corn having sex have not convinced Americans of human-caused climate change, as a new study shows that the US population are more skeptical of man's impact on global warming than they were ten years ago, despite scientific consensus on the matter.

The Daily Beast gives a nod to Upton Sinclair in explanation: "It is difficult to get a man to understand a thing when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

One in two conservative Republicans see nothing to sweat about and don't believe in the planet getting warmer at all.

This is deeply troubling, says Jay Michaelson. "All reputable climatologists agree that human-caused (“anthrogenic”) climate change is real. Our popular confusion is the result not of an honest difference of opinion, but, to quote our Secretary of State, of a vast right-wing conspiracy."

Conservatives like the Koch brothers have long funded think tanks to create the impression that there is no scientific consensus on the topic, and "blitzed the airwaves and bookshelves with pseudo-scientific fact-muddling written by non specialists."