ABSTRACT
The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is an Australian neoliberal think tank and high-profile news source that rejects the evidence of anthropogenic climate change and opposes mitigation strategies such as an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). This paper uses Ernest Bormann's Symbolic Convergence Theory firstly to identify the anti-climate science fantasy themes developed by the IPA and then to trace the chaining out of these fantasy themes from the IPA into the news media. The data analysed include: (1) magazine articles published in The IPA Review during 1989–2009; (2) op-eds published by IPA senior staff in Australian newspapers during 1989–2009; and (3) editorials and opinion columns that praised IPA associate Ian Plimer and his climate “sceptic” book during April to June 2009 in the lead-up to the first Australian parliamentary debates on introducing an ETS.
