The National Science Foundation has funded a grant for a doctoral dissertation about those who are skeptical about climate change, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
The foundation awarded the University of Kansas $12,000 for the research study, which started June 1.
The study focuses on two parishes outside of New Orleans on the mouth of the Mississippi River. The region is being studied because of its "high rates of climate change denial" in the community as well as its dependence on the oil and gas industry, according to the grant abstract.
"While environmental awareness is common, climate change denial is persistent in the community," the abstract said.
The grant seeks to find reasons why people are skeptical about climate change. The study will look at "news acquisition, political attitudes, attitudes toward local economic issues, attitudes toward environmental issues such as coastal restoration and climate change, and attitudes regarding the political processes around these issues in the community."
"By contributing to a more complete and nuanced understanding of climate change denial, this study will have potentially transformative impacts on the future of climate discourse and policy by providing new tools for climate advocates to address climate denial in the political arena," the grant abstract said.
The research rests on "socially organized denial," expressed in the MIT Press book "Living in Denial," by Kari Marie Norgaard, according to the Free Beacon.
Author Norgaard's book says socially organized denial is a phenomenon in which "climate science is known in the abstract, but disconnected from political, social, and private life."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.