Merchants of Doubt

How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming

Naomi Oreskes (Author) , Erik M. Conway (Author)

Merchants of Doubt

How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming

Naomi Oreskes (Author) , Erik M. Conway (Author)

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Description

The U.S. scientific community has long led the world in research on such areas as public health, environmental science, and issues affecting quality of life. Our scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers.

Merchants of Doubt tells the story of how a loose-knit group of high-level scientists and scientific advisers, with deep connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades. Remarkably, the same individuals surface repeatedly-some of the same figures who have claimed that the science of global warming is "not settled" denied the truth of studies linking smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain, and CFCs to the ozone hole. "Doubt is our product," wrote one tobacco executive. These "experts" supplied it.

Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, historians of science, roll back the rug on this dark corner of the American scientific community, showing how ideology and corporate interests, aided by a too-compliant media, have skewed public understanding of some of the most pressing issues of our era.

Product details

Published	Jun 03 2010
Format	Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition	1st
Extent	368
ISBN	9781608192939
Imprint	Bloomsbury Publishing
Illustrations	B&W
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Author

Naomi Oreskes

Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Scien…

Author

Erik M. Conway

Erik Conway is a historian of science and technolo…

Anyone concerned about the state of democracy in America should read this book.

Former Vice President Al Gore, author of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
A fascinating account of a very thorny problem.

Bill McKibben, author of EAARTH: MAKING A LIFE ON A TOUGH NEW PLANET
Merchants of Doubt should finally put to rest the question of whether the science of climate change is settled. It is, and we ignore this message at our peril.

Elizabeth Kolbert, author of THE SIXTH EXTINCTION and FIELD NOTES FROM A CATASTROPHE
If you read just one book on climate change this year, read Merchants of Doubt. And if you have time to read two, reread Merchants of Doubt.

Grist
Brilliantly reported and written with brutal clarity . . . Oreskes and Conway do a great public service.

The Huffington Post
A powerful dissection of how right wing think tanks and private corporations sow doubt on scientific consensus to block action on critical climate and public health issues.

Tom Steyer, via Twitter