document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world. Margaret Mead. That study concluded that there was clear evidence of serious hazard to human health and the biosphere from acid rain, requiring immediate action. When the Soviet Union broke a moratorium on atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, Seitz immediately urged President John Kennedy to respond in kind, despite evidence that radioactive fallout contaminated swaths of land for more than a thousand miles. NAOMI ORESKES: None of this is about the science. Grasping that bizarre and paranoid notion is central to understanding their motivations and methods. E-mail: davidlewis@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @davidlewisSF, Documentary. And as they say, they don't have to win, they just have to create doubt and delay. Kenner doesn't waste time proving, in this terse, brilliantly argued movie, that climate change is happening or that our dependence on fossil fuels has a causal relationship to it. They are shown above. The premise of these interludes is that there is an analogy between the techniques of professional magicians and the tactics of public relation organizations. BLOCK: And you have a number of clips that illustrate that of people saying, at the end of the Cold War, we threw these people out the window red. An unsigned review in The Boston Globe explains, "To make his point clear, Kenner follows up Swisss magic act and fancy patter with a snappy montage of various experts over the years denying that cigarettes cause cancer, or extolling the virtues of pesticide, or proclaiming that asbestos is designed to last a lifetime a trouble free lifetime. And then the inevitable parade of climate change deniers bloviating in Congress or on cable news, all backed by Sinatra singing 'That Old Black Magic. An infamous 1969 memo from. This book tells, with "brutal clarity" (Huffington Post), the disquieting story of how a loose-knit . The controversy involved missiles, specifically, Ronald Reagans $60 billion program to build an impenetrable missile shield over the United States. The government hopes it will be easier to reach that goal under the new system, which is based on one pioneered in the U.S. to reduce acid rain by allowing companies to trade credits for cutting. The misleading appendix was written by Fred Singer. They seized on inevitable uncertainties in scientific models as evidence that the models had no value, or worse. Merchants of Doubt. [10] Although no lawsuit was filed, Kenner noted in an interview that "when [Singer] implies litigation is very expensive, I think it's an attempt to be intimidating." Kenner, best known for his film adaptation of " Food, Inc. ," is out with a new documentary, " Merchants of Doubt ," in which he introduces us to a "professional class of deceivers": P.R.. Starring Patricia Callahan, Matthew Crawford, Stanton A. Glantz. He moved quickly from scientific research to administrative work, serving as president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1962 to 1969. Director Robert Kenner ("Food, Inc.") and his cowriter Kim Roberts lay it all out for us in "Merchants of Doubt," a compendium of public deceptions based on the same-titled book by science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway. For this, the film makes a decent case. Merchants of Doubt, directed by Robert Kenner who also directed "Food, Inc.," is based on the 2010 book of the same name by Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway. In their sweeping and comprehensive new book Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, historians Naomi Oreskes and Erick M. Conway document how a handful of right-wing ideologues all scientists have (mis)shaped U.S. policy for decades, delaying government action on life-and-death issues from cigarettes and second-hand smoke, to acid rain, and now, finally, to climate change. . About HPB-Diamond. All rights reserved. Fred SeitzThe central characters in Merchants of Doubt include Fred Seitz, S. Fred Singer, William Nierenberg, and Robert Jastrow. The other merchants of doubt profiled by Oreskes and Conway traveled a similar path. They are the. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: It has to do with sunspots, and it has to do with the wobble of the earth. These may not exactly be household names, but its probably not much of a stretch to call them the founding fathers of industrial-strength doubt. A broad scientific consensus had emerged over several years, so that by 1979 it wasnt news to most scientists in the field when Scientific American published an article explaining to the public that In recent decades, the acidity of rain and snow has increased sharply over wide areas. The book is similar to the popular Discovery Channel show How Do They Do It? Only instead of investigating quirky mysteries like how stripes get into toothpaste, Merchants of Doubt looks at exactly how we arrived at the gravest crisis in the history of our species one we created ourselves. Regardless of ones personal beliefs, its tough to respect a movie that ultimately invites viewers to question every case of propaganda except its own. That lawsuit ended when Lancaster withdrew his statements as "unwarranted", although Lancaster later expressed regret over the settlement. In the early 1980s, Singer was a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, arguably the most influential conservative think tank during the Reagan era. In his new documentary Merchants of Doubt, director Robert Kenner ( Food, Inc. ) shines a light on the very people that are hired to sway public perception of major issues (like climate change . And when I said that we're doing more than just a film about tobacco and flame retardants, it's also about climate, he said to me, you know, you could take James Hansen, the world's leading climate scientist, and I could take a garbage man, and I could get America to believe that garbage man knows more about science. The principle cause is the release of sulfur and nitrogen by the burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity. Once again, Oreskes and Conway do an excellent job of bringing to life a complex and important environmental battle that is poorly remembered today. MORANO: Bottom line, new study in the journal Nature, peer-reviewed - no change in U.S. drought in the last 60 years. And he's been very successful at what he does, and there's a group of these people who've been very successful. And so they knew their product was deadly, but they couldn't say it doesn't cause cancer 'cause that's an out-and-out lie. Merchants of Doubt is an important book. Rather, they say, climate concerns are a. KENNER: Well, really, people who had defended tobacco when they knew for 50 years their product caused cancer and was addictive, they were able to create doubt and say we need more studies, we need more time, when they knew what their product did. David Lewis is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. What you're seeing here is BLOCK: That's from a new documentary film that looks into the world of climate change deniers, their campaign to sway public opinion and the business interests behind them. The core argument of the new documentary "Merchants of Doubt" is simple: the movement to debunk climate change is corporate-funded and lacks credibility. When science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway published their 2010 book "Merchants of Doubt," they exposed how a small network of hired pundits and scientists delayed legislative action. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. BLOCK: And on TV, he, Marc Morano, is not boring. The title, Merchants of Doubt, frames the authors argument, echoing an internal memo from the Brown & Williamson tobacco company that declared: Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the body of fact that exists in the mind of the general public. Big tobacco helped finance the industry of doubt in its modern form, run by the scientists whose schemes this book details. While religion per se does not align with climate change denial, conservative American religious politics does. Spoiler alert. Beyond making a buck, many of these glorified lobbyists also see climate change as a leftist conspiracy to impose socialism on their idyllic way of life. Egypt is touting its climate agenda ahead of COP27. He also became convinced that environmentalists were dupes of communist propaganda, if not outright traitors. And what caused acid rain? The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. He runs the blog Climate Depot. Now with a new Foreword by former Vice President Al Gore, and with a new Postscript by the authors. For the most part, the executive summary agreed with the 1981 NAS study. Merchants of Doubt shows that some of the very same individuals were part of the plans to frame the climate change debate as unproven, using the same tried and true tactics of misrepresentation of facts, non-representative scientists, and industry-friendly legislators. In 1981, Oreskes and Conway write, the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association together contributed $300,000 to research. Jason M. Breslow Republican Bob Inglis is a former South Carolina congressman. Report: Countries need an impossible amount of land to meet climate pledges. Directed by Robert Kenner (the Oscar-nominated 2008 documentary, "Food, Inc."),"Merchants of Doubt" is inspired by the 2010 book of the same name by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, which . "[9], One of the subjects of the film, Fred Singer, wrote the director indicating that he was considering a lawsuit. BLOCK: And you quote a line from a consultant's - a PR firm's report to the tobacco industry, (reading) doubt is our product - was their line. The magician Jamy Ian Smith, whose . All donations matched for a limited time. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the world's leading authority on climate issues. The ultimate goal hasnt changed since the tobacco days preventing government regulation of industry. Global warming is by far the most significant political problem that the merchants of doubt have fought to undermine. BLOCK: I'm talking with Robert Kenner. KENNER: Yeah, I think I was clear in representing myself. Review of the must read book Merchants of Doubt. 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 . NPR's Melissa Block speaks to director Robert Kenner about his documentary, "Merchants of Doubt," which examines the work of climate change skeptics and their campaign to sway public opinion. As the evidence against them mounted in the 1970s, the tobacco industry realized they needed something more. And let's listen to some voices of climate change skeptics. While Seitz was well-paid for his work, ideology may have been the more important factor. Tobaccos modus operandi was to plant the seeds of skepticism about credible science, to create a sense of debate when there should have been none the same things that many of the same pundits are doing today, despite a wide consensus that our planet is in a heap of trouble. Thanks for coming in. In the 1990s, Singer had sued Justin Lancaster over his statements regarding the inclusion of Roger Revelle as a co-author of a climate change paper with Singer and Chauncey Starr; Revelle had died shortly after the paper was published. The website's critics consensus reads: "Merchants of Doubt is a thought-provoking documentary assembled with energy and style, even if it doesn't dig as deep as it could. If you overstate your case sometimes, you're going to turn people off. Joining me here in the studio is the film's director, Robert Kenner, who also directed the documentary "Food Inc." Welcome to the program. Right-wing ministers are potent merchants of certainty. They knew before anyone else because big corporations have to have good science. In the introduction, I mentioned Naomi Oreskes who wrote the book that inspired your film. From tobacco to climate change, 'merchants of doubt' undermined the science "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world." Margaret Mead Because Americans are. As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. Is it all a mirage? Our in-depth approach to solutions-based journalism takes time and proactive planning, which is why Grist depends on reader support. The documentaries A Climate of Doubt and Merchants of Doubt both take up this history, though in somewhat different ways. Dr. Singer was a focus of the book "Merchants of Doubt" (2010), which examined how tobacco and other industries promoted a small group of scientists who worked to muddy the truth on climate . Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. The move enraged Seitz and his colleagues Nierenberg and Robert Jastrow. Praise For Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change In 1982, Nierenberg was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to lead a review of the scientific evidence concerning acid rain. ICN reporters Lisa Song and Zahra Hirji contributed to this story. YouTube. And if you have time to read two, reread Merchants of Doubt. For this, the film makes a decent. In fact, their stance has become a mainstream political opinion and heavily influenced policy. "Merchants" exposes the climate change "experts" who enrich themselves by fooling the American public with bogus claims that cast doubt on scientific research and thus protect corporate. They're just not good at selling the science of what they're trying to explain. Oreskes and Conway do a great public service. This premise may sound like a conspiracy theory, but the truth Oreskes and Conway elucidate is more banal and convincing. They've walked back in the front door green. 96 minutes. Over the years Seitzs conservative views had grown ever more extreme. (SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "MERCHANTS OF DOUBT"). Erik Conway talked about the book he wrote with Naomi Orestes, [Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming] (Bloomsbury Press . KENNER: Well, I think, you know, first of all, I think tribes move. If the tactics of "climate deniers" those who don't believe in climate change or humankind's role in it sound familiar, it's not a coincidence, according to science Theyre way behind schedule. (Hed gone to Antarctica to see for himself.). YouTube, Follow us on The documentary Merchants of Doubt portrays climate skeptics using the same deceptive techniques - and even the same cast of spin doctors. BLOCK: Was there ever a moment when you questioned the science or the tactics of the environmental movement? 100% of climate scientists agree that global warming is not only real, but is man-made. In the sequence in which they appear in the film, they are: The film embeds commentary and performances by magician Jamy Ian Swiss. This is the missing piece of the puzzle in Merchants of Doubt. Twitter, Follow us on Merchants exposes the climate change experts who enrich themselves by fooling the American public with bogus claims that cast doubt on scientific research and thus protect corporate profits. 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 only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. When (and before) the end credits roll, you will probably feel a sense of outrage and helplessness. And I think it's not the job of the scientists to represent themselves on television 'cause they're busy doing the work. Robert JastrowNineteen eighty-four marked a key moment in Oreske and Conways darkly fascinating history of selling doubt. So at some point, environmentalists became the new enemy. Only this time around, the enemies of awareness have struck back, and it aint pretty. In the 1950s, Big Tobacco had begun using scientists to sow doubt about links between their product and cancer. It's as if it's unsure whether to stay focused on the topic of misdirection or dive directly into the immediate and pressing issue of climate change. Using a professional magician, the film explores the analogy between these tactics and the methods used by magicians to distract their audiences from observing how illusions are performed. [11], The film has been widely reviewed in the mainstream U.S. media and garnered mostly positive reviews. The documentary Merchants of Doubt portrays climate skeptics using the same deceptive techniques - and even the same cast of spin doctors. And I think that's what we try to lay out is how you can just see this pattern used over and over and over again. And - but I was open to hearing how they did what they did and why they did what they did. Accuracy and availability may vary. All of this is a political debate about the role of government. Merchants of Doubt Phil England | 10th September 2010 In a hard-hitting new investigation, Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway report on the scientists prepared to distort the truth on the key issues of our time - from tobacco to climate change to coal fired power stations The core argument of the new documentary "Merchants of Doubt" is simple: the movement to debunk climate change is corporate-funded and lacks credibility. [13], Justin Chang wrote for Variety that it is "An intelligent, solidly argued and almost too-polished takedown of Americas spin factory that network of professional fabricators, obfuscators and pseudo-scientists who have lately attempted to muddle the scientific debate around global warming this is a movie so intrigued by its designated villains that it almost conveys a perverse form of admiration, and the fascination proves contagious. Although the film Blinkered by optimism, however, we miss the dark flip side of her observation that a few fanatics can do immense harm. All donations matched for a limited time. What do the deniers of climate change and apologists for big tobacco have in common? View SC 130 04 Climate Science Merchants of Doubt Questions.docx from SC 130 at Monmouth University. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. These "experts" supplied it. BLOCK: If it's not about the science though, as Naomi Oreskes claims - but it's about politics, it's about your worldview, what tribe you belong to - it doesn't seem that there's much that a film like yours could do to change people's minds. Directed by Robert Kenner, best known for his Oscar . MARC MORANO: You go up against a scientist, most of them are going to be in their own little sort of policy-wonk world or area of expertise, very arcane, very hard to understand, hard to explain and very boring. They used to show up to argue against the dangers of secondhand cigarette smoke, but these days they're more likely to dispute the existence of human-caused climate change. It's called. That claim is ridiculous, but it creates just enough plausible doubt for the powers-that-be to continue business as usual. Merchants of Doubt: The Spread of Climate Skepticism Through elaborate and deceitful public relation campaigns, big tobacco companies once cast doubt on the harmfulness of smoking. Whats more, the National Academy of Sciences had released a report in 1981 with similar conclusions, but going even further. All donations matched for a limited time. He's a climate change skeptic. It's increasing the bounty and the productivity of the planet, our ability to feed populations in this world. Using the same type of tinkling score and shots of children at play as campaign ads shown earlier in the film, this late-inning agenda comes off as noble as it is hypocritical. In a sense, this is an industrial history and it should be no more shocking to see the same names continually popping up than it is to see Lee Iacoccas in a history of the auto industry. How common is that message? Physicist William Nierenbergs work on the Manhattan Project led him in the early 1960s to become NATOs chief scientist working on developing weapons to use against the Soviets. For Seitz and his colleagues, GMI represented a decisive step away from the scientific community and from science itself. Over a thousand experts signed a petition stating that they would refuse any government funding of projects that could further SDI. Seitz and the tobacco industry were a perfect fit. He's frequently on TV. "[12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The assurance they are marketing is this: no matter what the scientists discover, God will keep his flock from harm. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy. . The filmmakers interviewed more than a dozen individuals who have been involved in a series of conflicts ranging from the regulation of tobacco products due to the health risks to global climate change. Grist Brilliantly reported and written with brutal clarity . In 2010, he lost his bid for re-election after telling a radio host that he believed humans were contributing to. And representing things as totally dire when they aren't could be misleading. Though the film touches on how these purveyors of misinformation have distorted such issues as food safety and fire retardants, its front-and-center issue is the global warming debate.. R obert Kenner addresses a topic last raised, more splenetically, in Craig Rosebraugh's 2012 film Greedy Lying Bastards: the growth industry of climate-change doubt: "denial" doesn't do . The authors do an excellent job, however, of touching on many of the cogs inside that dreadful box, from clueless writers (Bjorn Lomborg, John Tierney, George Will) to odious politicians (Sen. James Inhofe, Vice President Dick Cheney) to the scores of conservative foundations that wrap themselves in the flag that they disgrace by their actions.
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