Abstract
Scepticism about climate change now appears a pervasive and seemingly growing social phenomenon. Western scholars to date have examined the different forms that scepticism can take and the factors that support its growth.
Over the past four to five years there have been some signs of evidence indicating a decline in the Czech public’s acceptance of the seriousness of climate change. The first part of this article summarizes available poll data concerning climate change perceptions generally and public scepticism in particular.
The second part focuses on the sceptical countermovement (or denial) in the country and analyses the framing strategies by which it constructs the ‘non-problematicity’ of the issue. Using Q methodology and qualitative data, three main topics are framed as ‘uniquely Czech’ by the majority of the active climate sceptics: (1) the sceptical nature of the ‘ideologically resistant population’ (caused by the historical experience with communism), (2) the unique (as well as ambivalent) role played by the most vocal Czech sceptic, president Václav Klaus, and (3) the ‘natural’ overlap of climate- and euroscepticism.
The call for more quantitative as well as qualitative research is proposed.