COGNITIVE CAGW DISSONANCE IMAGING AT THE GWPF

THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL

Date: 08/06/18 John Ridgway, Climate Scepticism

Much work has already been undertaken to establish the cognitive foundation for the irrationality of climate change denial. Of particular note are the studies undertaken by Lewandowsky, Kahneman, Shapiro and O’Conner, identifying the many cognitive biases that invalidate arguments put forward by those who profess scepticism in the face of the scientific evidence. However, it is not until recently that neuroscientists have turned their attention to the subject of climate change science denial in order to determine whether there are any fundamental neurological indicators that may be used as predictors of such pathological thinking strategies. 

In The neurobiology of climate change denial,  Dr Rodriguez Azuela et al, of the Positano Behavioural and Cognitive Research Unit report:

 “We were interested to see how the pattern of neural activity differed between climate change deniers and those who accept the scientific consensus...For this purpose, subjects who had declared varying degrees of scepticism were confronted with images totemic of climate change evidence and were asked to offer their personal assessment whilst undergoing Catastropic Alarmist Global Warming Alarmist Dissonance Imaging (CAGWADMRI)...

It would be quite wrong to label climate change deniers as psychopaths based upon the results of this study. Psychopathy exists as a spectrum of human behaviour; in this instance the GWPF's self-parody simply indicates an unusually low paralimbic reaction to a perceived threat.

In reality, studies have shown that confirmation bias poses the greatest challenge to cognitive performance. Those that suffer this bias will accept what they read unquestioningly, whilst others remain instinctively suspicious. Doubt should have kicked in at Ridgway's suggestion that Positano has a Behavioural and Cognitive Research Unit. However, if you still failed to recognize the inauthenticity of this article, perhaps you should now be questioning any faith you might have had in the scientific consensus that imputing intellectual seriousness to the GWPF Forum may be symptomatic of brain death, witness that the editors of their sister publication  Climate Depot  fell for it with the ease of GWPF Director Benny Peisner and Rush Limbaugh swallowing the " Benthic Bacteria" hoax hook line and sinker:

In 2007  the denialati fell for a non-existent article in a non-existent learned journal :

 “Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria: the death of manmade global warming theory?” 

It featured a spectacular  display of pure gibberish, peppered with pseudoequations, like:

4δ161x Λ³Жญ5,6,1,8Φ-4 = {(ΣΨ²Њyt3-14๖P9) x 49}/2β x ⅜kxgt-§

adduced to prove  that 'benthic bacteria', not man-made CO2, cause global arming.

I was designed, sucessfully, to make climate scientists fall down laughing, but   Peisner posted it on the GWPF blog, where it remained unchallenged  long enough for 2,000 true believers to read it without complaint. 

Rush Limbaugh broadcast the bogus hypothesis nationwide, declaring it  "very convincing ",  and citing as proof positive its reference to fossils from the " Miocene, Pliocene and Plasticine eras."