CCL-C Education John Cook Skeptical Science (Jan. 2021)

Guest: John Cook, Founder of Skeptical Science:
John Cook is a research assistant professor at the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. His research focus is understanding and countering misinformation about climate change, with an emphasis on using critical thinking to build resilience. He founded Skeptical Science, authored the book Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change, and developed the smartphone game Cranky Uncle, combining climate science, critical thinking, and cartoons to explain and counter climate misinformation. He also co-authored the college textbooks Climate Change: Examining the Facts and Climate Change Science: A Modern Synthesis and the book Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand.

Here’s a description of the presentation:
Misinformation is a growing societal problem, confusing the public about climate change and reducing support for climate action. A key strategy to neutralize misinformation is inoculation – explaining the techniques of science denial. John Cook has researched how to counter misinformation for over a decade, developing resources such as Skeptical Science and the MOOC Making Sense of Climate Science Denial.

His latest project – the Cranky Uncle smartphone game – combines gamification, critical thinking, and cartoons to build public resilience against misinformation. In this presentation, Cook will explain how climate misinformation misleads, how we can inoculate ourselves and others against science denial, and how the Cranky Uncle game utilizes these techniques in a fun game.

Resources:
The Cranky Uncle website
The PowerPoint Presentation 
FLICC Graphics