University of Queensland offer free course to combat climate denial

The University of Queensland is offering a free course to arm people with the necessary tools to understand and combat climate skepticism.

The course, called “Making Sense of Climate Denial”, will start next week, and is free and entirely online.

University of Queensland Global Change Institute climate communication fellow John Cook is the course coordinator as well as founder of the climate science myth debunking website Skeptical Science.

“Ninety-seven per cent of climate scientists agree that humans are causing global warming; however, less than half of Australians are aware of humanity’s role in climate change, while half of the US Senate has voted that humans aren’t causing global warming,” Cook said.

“This free course explains why there is such a huge gap between the scientific community and the public. Our course looks at what’s driving climate science denial and the most common myths about climate change.”

The open online course (MOOC) will examine issues such as the gap between public and scientists, the psychological and social drivers of the rejection of scientific consensus, and how climate denial has influenced public perceptions and attitudes towards climate change.

Over seven weeks, students will have access to interviews with 75  scientific experts, including Sir David Attenborough.

Students  from over 130 countries who are keen to develop a stronger understanding of climate science, have already enrolled for the course. It’s not clear if any Abbott government ministers were among them.