CBH Talk | Confronting Climate Change Part 1: Understanding Deniers

Confronting Climate Change is a three-part series that explores one of the most urgent issues of our times. Join leading thinkers, scientists, journalists, and advocates for these vitally important conversations. 

Part One: Understanding Denial—Manufacturing Doubt, Shaping Debate

Part One of Confronting Climate Change examines the rise and persistence of climate denial, asking how doubt about the well-established scientific consensus has been deliberately cultivated, and to what effect. This conversation explores the networks of influence behind denial, from fossil fuel industry funding to media ecosystems that amplify skepticism, as well as the social and political forces that have entrenched resistance to climate policy in public life.

The conversation features environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben, whose decades of work have helped define how we understand the climate crisis and the opposition to addressing it. He is joined by Ricky Bradley, Executive Director of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, who brings a strategist’s perspective on how beliefs are formed, how misinformation spreads, and what it takes to build political will for climate action across ideological divides.

The program is moderated by Rebecca Hersher, correspondent on NPR’s Climate Desk, whose reporting on climate science, extreme weather, and human adaptation offers a clear-eyed view of how these debates play out in real time. Together, they unpack how denial has been organized and sustained, and consider what it will take to move beyond it.

To learn more about and register for Part 2 of Confronting Climate Change click here and for Part 3, click here.