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Climate change skepticism presents an opportunity to examine the role of media, information, and trust on views about controversial scientific topics. Building on extant work on predictors of skepticism and the role of information and trust in shaping skeptical attitudes, in this paper, we examine the relationship between climate change skeptics’ access of media/information sources, trust, and the strength of their skepticism. Specifically, we use data gathered from 1,000 surveys with skeptics in the U.S. Pacific Northwest to present an analysis of how trust in institutions and institutional leaders affect the relationship between skeptics’ information sources and their type/strength of skepticism along a “continuum” of skeptical thought. Results reveal that the reliance on conservative/rightwing media and trust in actors steeped within the climate change denial countermovement is associated with a higher degree of denialof anthropogenic climate change as opposed to doubtof the phenomenon. Further, skeptics’ reliance on non-scientific sources for climate change information is partly explained by their distrust in climate scientists.

Previous research suggests that climate skeptics may hold a series of environmental concerns and support for environmental policy that, if engaged with, could serve to (in part) mitigate climate change. Using a unique data set from an online survey of 1,000 adults in the U.S. Pacific Northwest who are uncertain or skeptical of anthropogenic climate change, we explore the diversity of environmental concerns, environmental behaviors, and support for pro-environmental policy within and amongthose who do not accept climate science. Our results reveal statistically significant and consistent positive effects of (negative) environmental experiences on climate change skeptics’ environmental concerns, behaviors, and policy support. We also find that, among climate skeptics, religious ideation, conspiracy ideation, science distrust, political ideology (conservative), and gender (men) are negatively associated with certain pro-environmental attitudes, behaviors, and support for pro-environmental policy initiatives. We discuss the implications of these findings for climate change and science communication, environmental campaigns, and policy development.