Reviews coming in – Scientific American:
Kenner employs Scientific American‘s own arch-skeptic Michael Shermer to show how this denial is not skepticism, but cynicism. Shermer details his own journey from skeptic to the ranks of the convinced, swayed by data, something Singer, Seitz and their colleagues seem immune to—perhaps helped along by the kind of funding that the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ Willie Soon has most recently enjoyed.
In addition to skeptical “scientists,” another useful ally has been think tanks that can sow doubt under the guise of impartiality, such as the Global Climate Coalition that fought action on climate change from 1989 to 2002 or, more recently, the Heartland Institute. I had the privilege of attending Heartland’s first skeptics conference held in New York City in 2008. That’s where I learned that polar bears are an insidious threat to the American way of life.
There I also got to interview Marc Morano, who was then the PR director for Sen. James Inhofe (R–Okla.), the leading climate denier in Congress, both then and now. Morano is a talking bobble head for cable news these days and Inhofe is once again in charge of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which makes it highly unlikely Congress will do anything about the problem of climate change. Inhofe’s most recent antics include tossing a snowball on the Senate floor.
As Morano puts it in the new film: “Gridlock is the greatest friend” for climate change deniers.
The documentary’s interview with Morano reveals that he learned many of his tricks from door-to-door sales, including the need to keep it simple so that people can fill in the blanks with their pre-existing biases. Morano’s biggest piece of advice is that the best way to attack science is to attack individuals. That idea is seconded by spin gurus like Richard Berman, perhaps better known as “Dr. Evil,” a lawyer who has advised energy executives to always be on the attack, particularly against inconvenient scientists, among other tidbits, as laid out by David Roberts at Grist.
A hundred hurrahs to filmmaker Robert Kenner (“Food Inc.”) for throwing back the curtain and exposing the liars who make sure our furniture is toxic, our climate change policies are hobbled and our cancer rate stays constant.
The folks who do that are paid “scientists,” the pros hired to counter actual facts with made-up junk. The anemic media goes to them regularly to represent “the other side” on issues like greenhouse gases and nicotine, but their influence has been felt for more than 40 years, Kenner shows.
What the film doesn’t show enough of is how these people got their positions of power. We get much more of the other side, the legitimate scientists, and too much of a magician who pops up to describe cons and double-talk. But he shows how a bunko artist is a bunko artist, whether on a corner or on CNN.
Reblogged this on jpratt27.
I remember reading a paperback book as a teenager in the mid 1960’s exposing corruption, money and dirty politics in the U.S, and thinking what a lousy bummer, surely such things could not happen in my own home country (the U.K) between Harold Wilson and Edward Heath.
My reaction on tobacco and climate change denial today is similar to what it was all those years ago.
Universities have moved on since those times and most offer advanced science communications courses. The video mentions that scientists were lousy communicators and boring, and easily targeted by PR wise techniques. Yes indeed that was all very true, but today we have moved on, daily I read university media and many are much more focused and professional than earlier times.
Time to put all that behind us and bury the denial industry, we have the tools and wits to do it. They do not have a leg to stand on.
Your points are all true and yet “a large fraction of North Americans” believe: 1) vaccines are more dangerous than useful; 2) evolution can’t possibly be true; 3) the world is only 6,000 years old as proven by Ussher chronology. And with the cost of an education rising each year, I fear that future generations will receive a colloquial internet education (dominated by “politics, religion and misinformation” rather than “science, along with liberte, egalite, fraternite”)
It’s depressing to know that it’s that easy to sway people toward whatever opinion you want them to believe, and depressing that there are so many people willing to sell their souls, maybe for the money, but probably more for the challenge of doing it, the chase, the great game many of them seem to love so much. I suspect Merchants of Doubt will be a good movie to watch, but the game goes on relentlessly, and people continue to be unwitting pawns in the game.
This is what the real science says
“I find the CET data rejects the hypothesis of ‘climate change’ (>58%) & current ‘global warming’ (>72%) and that overall global temperature has not changed significantly more than would be expected.”
http://scottishsceptic.co.uk/2015/03/06/proof-recent-temperature-trends-are-not-abnormal/#comment-31477
CO2 might be causing a small change, but the evidence is clear that this small change is so small that it cannot be seen in the normal natural variation that the scaremongers use to scare the gullible idiots who believe in doomsday global warming.
The only “gullible idiot” is you. I’ll take Tamino, Michael Mann, Phil Neven,etal and all the real scientists interviewed by Peter Sinclair ( and he himself) over you any day of the week……excuse me,I need to go ROFLMAO for awhile just thinking about making that comparison…..
Then I’m sure you’ll have no trouble getting your “real science” published in a peer-reviewed journal.
The key is to demonize individuals on the other side, and the climate supporters can tear a page from that instruction book. The Koch Bros. are perfect. Rich beyond anyone’s imagination, supporters of crackpot right wing pseudo libertarian nonsense, secretive, they make a perfect foil. They don’t dare ever get an interview on any media outlet except for Fox and other right wing propaganda media. They would show themselves to be the decedents of Henry Ford (who was proved to be “ignorant” in a court room trial).
To understand a Koch Brother, imagine that guy you see shooting his mouth off while hanging out at a local 7-11. Now give that guy a bunch of money in the billions, and you have a Koch Brother. You don’t even have to make stuff up. They’ll be a great help to any negative image making.