Will Storr, author: The Heretics – Adventures with the Enemies of Science

Debating climate change with steadfast contrarians is ‘pointless’, because their underlying beliefs are based less on scientific data and more on their life experiences.

That’s the view of author Will Storr, who has recently finished working on a new book exploring why many people refuse to accept commonly agreed facts.

Storr’s quest to meet ‘Enemies of Science’ saw him meet infamous climate sceptic Lord Monckton, who he termed a perfect ‘hero maker’, that is a person who cannot believe they are wrong about anything.

“There’s no point in debating with someone like Lord Monckton on the science. You could talk about the hockey graph and individual points of data – but underneath there is the whole story of his life,” he said.

“These little facts aren’t going to shift the story of his life. It’s shifting everything, and everything is not going to shift.

“The whole story of his life is that this is a devious plot by the totalitarian left, so one study, one meta-analysis is not going to shift that.”