Abstract

In this paper, we investigate what is perhaps the most recent instance of rejection of the results of science on the part of laypeople: extinction or biodiversity loss denial. After highlighting its similarities to anthropogenic climate change denial, we suggest that the two can be considered as parts of a more comprehensive phenomenon, i.e. environmental denialism. We then point to the limits of the concept of “death of expertiseµ as an explanans of the success that environmental denialism enjoys and outline an alternative explanation, revolving around the conflict between established scientific results, on the one hand, and the beliefs that people rejecting such results perceive as the core of their own identities, on the other hand.