Environmental skepticism runs counter to the often alarming claims of environmentalists that people are irreversibly damaging the environment. Some environmental skeptics believe that human damage to the environment is either minimal or less important in its likely consequences than the benefits that apparently damaging economic development brings, others believe that any significant future damage will be fixed by yet-to-be invented technology, while yet others believe that major elements of the environment are in fact improving over time. There are few skeptics who believe that human activites has not caused any environmental damage, and the idea is more often opposed to specific environmentalist claims.
Skeptics use statistical analysis to evaluate concerns such as:
Historically, environmental skepticism has been linked to the interests of large, polluting industries, including a backlash against Rachael Carson's _Silent Spring_ ("dilution is the solution to pollution"). "Skeptical" approaches to the analysis of the effects of secondhand tobacco smoke have also benn promulgated by puppets of the tobacco industry.
A particularly controversial environmental skeptic is the political scientist Bjørn Lomborg who wrote The Skeptical Environmentalist.
