Institute of Advanced Studies

Merchants of Doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming

By Naomi Oreskes, Professor of History and Science Studies, University of California, San Diego

‘Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway have demonstrated what many of us had long suspected: that the ‘debate’ over the climate crisis - and many other environmental issues - was manufactured by the same people who brought you ‘safe’ cigarettes. Anyone concerned about the state of democracy in America should read this book.’
- Former US Vice President Al Gore, author of An Inconvenient Truth.

In this lecture, Naomi Oreskes discussed her book Merchants of Doubt  (Bloomsbury 2010, co-authored by Erik M. Conway).

In Merchants of Doubt, Oreskes and Conway roll back the rug on the 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.

The book 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’ lecture will contribute to the public discussions about climate change held by the Institute of Advanced Studies this year.

Naomi Oreskes is Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses on the historical development of scientific knowledge, methods, and practices in the earth and environmental sciences, and on understanding scientific consensus and dissent.

Monday,  22  November 2010