They found 58 per cent of conservative white males - or CWMs for short - thought recent global temperature rises were not caused mainly from human activities, such as burning fossil fuels. This compared with 31 per cent of other adults. Some 29 per cent of CWMs thought the effects of global warming would “never happen” compared with only seven per cent of other adults. The paper, titled Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States, found CWMs who claimed they understood the global warming issue “very well” were even more convinced that global warming wasn’t happening. The researchers concluded that “organised climate change denial” had spread from US conservative think-tanks to other nations, including New Zealand and Australia. They wrote: “Throughought these Anglo countries organised denial seems to be dominated by politically conservative white males, and this suggests that a similar conservative white male effect might be emerging in the general publics of these nations with regard to climate change denial.”

Professor Joseph Reser, a Research Fellow with Griffith University’s Climate Change Response Program in Queensland, agreed broadly with the findings, but said his own research and other comparable studies from the US and Europe suggested the proportion of true climate change sceptics was much smaller. “If you look at this group of conservative white males, less than 30% are characterised as denialists - they are not a majority even within this grouping," Professer Reser said. "But these CWMs tend to stand out and do well in many social, work, and political organisations; they align themselves with those sharing similar views; and they are also more likely to be outspoken in their views and politically engaged, and to work and operate in sectors where their views get aired more.” These CWMs tend to stand out and do well in many social, work, and political organisations, they align themselves with those sharing similar views He said the fact conservatives were unduly confident about their own views on climate change “also makes them less open to differing views or able to accept that they might be wrong”.

Dr Kelly Fielding, a senior researcher at the University of Queensland’s Institute for Social Science Research, said political affiliation was strongly linked to climate change beliefs. Dr Fielding was part of a research project which last year surveyed more than 300 Australian political leaders. Only 38 per cent of Liberal-National politicians thought humans were causing global warming, compared to 89 per cent from Labor. “We’ve shown results that are consistent with the US results,’’ she said. “Political ordination is the strongest predictor for what people believe about climate change.” But she added that political conservatism wasn’t linked to climate scepticism everywhere, pointing to Germany and the UK as examples.

Dr Reser led a national survey last year of more than 3000 Australians which found 90 per cent of respondents accepted humans were “playing a causal role” in climate change. Less than six per cent could really be classified as strong disbelievers, he said. There was also a distinct gender divide, with more women willing to accept the scientific evidence. “I don’t accept - nor does the evidence support - that there’s a high level of denial in Australia or North America,’’ he said. “It’s something of a cultivated urban myth - and a substantial misreading of where the public is at. There has been a small but strident group of climate sceptic lobbyists pushing that argument for a long time.” Criticising the current political debate around climate change, Dr Reser added: "What’s happening with the Coalition and their prominent spokespersons is that they are playing on public concerns and worries about not only the profound threat of climate change, but multiple and interacting social, political, and environmental issues, both national and global. “People in turn want to hear that things are not as bad as they appear to be. This might be an effective political strategy, but it is also a rather crass exploitation of very genuine public concerns for the sake of political point scoring – rather than seriously acknowledging or addressing these genuine concerns - or indeed the core challenges of climate change. “This cynical political rhetoric is really unfortunate, it undermines well-founded public belief, scientific credibility, and political will, and it is part of the reason that this urban myth exists.”