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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. These 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.
About the Author
Naomi Oreskes is a professor of history and science studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her essay "Beyond the Ivory Tower" was a milestone in the fight against global warming denial. Erik M. Conway is the resident historian at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Merchants of Doubt is their first book together.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In 1988 the United States was on course to take remedial action to slow the pace of man-made global warming. But by the mid 1990s the issue was dead. This change was brought about by a small, loosely connected group of individuals, who used skills and techniques they had honed during earlier campaigns:
> on behalf of tobacco companies to deny the adverse health effects of smoking (when the tobacco companys' own scientists had known the truth for decades);
> on behalf of chemical companies to deny the existence of the ozone hole, and when that was established beyond doubt, to pretend that it was not caused by the release of CFCs;
> on behalf of the fossil fuel industry to deny that the burning of coal was the principle cause of acid rain;
> and other issues.
And again and again the same names, Singer, Seitz and Nierenberg in particular, keep cropping up.
This extraordinarily important book describes the history of each campaign in turn, and exposes the techniques of disinformation which proved, and continue to prove, so devastatingly effective, especially when people were being fed things they wanted to hear which allowed them to continue irresponsible behaviour. The power of a few determined mavericks to successfully undermine the combined expertise and authority of mainstream scientific bodies at the highest level is chillingly apparent.
The authority of the book, with its moderate, scholarly tone and its 64 pages of references, is all too evident. Indeed the reader can only wish that its appalling story were not so obviously true. But it does provide a convincing explanation for the biggest puzzle of all - what on earth it is that motivates these people, who presumably live on Earth like the rest of us, and some of whom must surely have grandchildren too. The answer has something to do with free market zealotry and passionate antipathy to regulation of any kind, but if the argument could be summarised in a review there would have been no need to write the book, or indeed to read it.
It is a gripping and fascinating read. Forget fiction like the Da Vinci Code, this is the real thing. I recommend it without the slightest hesitation.
> on behalf of tobacco companies to deny the adverse health effects of smoking (when the tobacco companys' own scientists had known the truth for decades);
> on behalf of chemical companies to deny the existence of the ozone hole, and when that was established beyond doubt, to pretend that it was not caused by the release of CFCs;
> on behalf of the fossil fuel industry to deny that the burning of coal was the principle cause of acid rain;
> and other issues.
And again and again the same names, Singer, Seitz and Nierenberg in particular, keep cropping up.
This extraordinarily important book describes the history of each campaign in turn, and exposes the techniques of disinformation which proved, and continue to prove, so devastatingly effective, especially when people were being fed things they wanted to hear which allowed them to continue irresponsible behaviour. The power of a few determined mavericks to successfully undermine the combined expertise and authority of mainstream scientific bodies at the highest level is chillingly apparent.
The authority of the book, with its moderate, scholarly tone and its 64 pages of references, is all too evident. Indeed the reader can only wish that its appalling story were not so obviously true. But it does provide a convincing explanation for the biggest puzzle of all - what on earth it is that motivates these people, who presumably live on Earth like the rest of us, and some of whom must surely have grandchildren too. The answer has something to do with free market zealotry and passionate antipathy to regulation of any kind, but if the argument could be summarised in a review there would have been no need to write the book, or indeed to read it.
It is a gripping and fascinating read. Forget fiction like the Da Vinci Code, this is the real thing. I recommend it without the slightest hesitation.
40 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
To see the same names and the same institutions crop up time and time again, over decades, selling anti-science scepticism is jaw-dropping. How can there be a public controversy and a scientific concensus? Marketing, brilliantly explained and illustrated - and with lots of citations from reputable sources. We need to learn more from history.
18 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Brilliant investigation of the fight against scientific truth about tobacco, acid rain and global warming
22 Dec 2010
Format:Hardcover
"As recently as 2007, 40% of Americans believed that scientific experts were still arguing about the realities of global warming." And, of course, they were not; global warming is a long-acknowledged, scientific fact, say science professor Naomi Oreskes and science writer Erik M. Conway. They show how "merchants of doubt" - a dedicated cabal of conservative scientists on the payrolls of industries and right-wing think tanks - have labored successfully over the decades to convince a broad spectrum of the public that the truth is not true, that scientific fact is merely opinion, that secondhand smoke will not kill you, that industrial pollution did not cause acid rain, that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) did not deplete the ozone layer and that global warming does not exist. In this jaw-dropping, meticulously researched work of science, politics and investigative journalism, Oreskes and Conway track the shockingly long history of widespread, willful dissemination of scientific fiction in the service of politics and profits. getAbstract recommends this sure-to-be classic to all those interested in the environment, in the processes of politics, science and media, and in learning the hard facts that underlie so much propaganda.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Distortion of science
Ms Oreskes previously wrote about Wegener and the theory of continental drift, showing how his ideas were rejected by geologists in the 1930s. Read more
Published 25 days ago by Dr. P. R. Lewis
a very interesting read
At long last a book that tells it like it is, how influential people conspired to hide the truth about many of the issues that should be of concern to us all.
Published 1 month ago by M. Shubinsky
A great point - but....
The central fact of this book is that bug business has been paying off the same set of scientists for decades to prop up thier products which are bad for us - think... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Marc Munier
I cannot praise this book highly enough
Many will find it astonishing that, in 1980, an economist such as Thomas Schelling should have attempted to justify his "we don't need to do anything about climate change" argument... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Martin Lack
Hot Air Goes Up In Smoke
I bought this book because a reviewer said it brought together the scientific rebuttal of the claims of climate change deniers. It does no such thing. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Doubting Thomas
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