The film, Merchants of Doubt, explores how many of the same people that once lobbied on behalf of the tobacco industry are now employed in the climate denial game. [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." And the big money maker at this point and the big payday is climate and energy, and that's why it's out there. Anything you learned from the climate change deniers that gave you pause, made you think, well, you know, some in the environmental movement have gone too far in trying to make their case? Documentaries about the dangers of climate change are nothing new, but Merchants of Doubt, which had its world premiere in Telluride, adds a pointed perspective to the debate. As its second example, the film describes how manufacturers of flame retardants worked to protect their sales after toxic effects of the retardants were reported in the scientific literature. . Merchants of Doubt review and reflections Understanding. Science uses doubt as a tool, a prod to deepen understanding. Oreskes and Conway do a great public service. I think as people start to realize that this is not an issue that's an ideological issue - it's really about the planet, and the science is there - that they'll want to change. . They knew before anyone else because big corporations have to have good science. 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. Grist Brilliantly reported and written with brutal clarity . Illustrates FILM-MERCHANTS-ADV13 (category e), by Ann Hornaday 2015, The Washington Post. In reaction, the three hawks formed the George C. Marshall Institute, a conservative think tank dedicated to selling Star Wars to policy makers and the public. If you read just one book on climate change this year, read Merchants of Doubt. Fred SingerFred Singer is another physicist turned cold warrior. That lawsuit ended when Lancaster withdrew his statements as "unwarranted", although Lancaster later expressed regret over the settlement. Go after the messenger. So at some point, environmentalists became the new enemy. 5 Takeaways From the U.N. That same counternarrative of denial continues today, stronger and more strident than ever, and now focused on creating doubt about all aspects of climate change. Because Americans are optimists we tend to see Meads observation as upbeat and life-affirming (as it was probably intended). As the unworkable SDI inevitably faded, GMI turned to other ideological battles, including ozone depletion and global warming. The subject of Robert Kenner's documentary Merchants of Doubt is the catastrophe of global climate change, which is engulfing us even faster than predicted. 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. Once again, Oreskes and Conway do an excellent job of bringing to life a complex and important environmental battle that is poorly remembered today. So in a number of places, we actually found these people saying they see environmentalists as creeping communists. About HPB-Diamond. 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. Featuring a new Foreword by former Vice President Al Gore Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize "Important and timely. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming is a 2010 non-fiction book by American historians of science Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. They seized on inevitable uncertainties in scientific models as evidence that the models had no value, or worse. "[14] William Goss wrote for The Austin Chronicle that "Merchants spends much of its running time exposing trends of political subterfuge before working in an earnest call to action regarding climate change. As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. . Kenner is obviously a master of the documentary form, keeping the proceedings brisk and entertaining. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy. All donations matched for a limited time. All donations matched! How important? UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: We need more data. [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. 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. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #5: CO2 is a benefit to plant life. So all of a sudden, our scientists become the targets, and I think that's very unfortunate. He also became convinced that environmentalists were dupes of communist propaganda, if not outright traitors. 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 . The controversy involved missiles, specifically, Ronald Reagans $60 billion program to build an impenetrable missile shield over the United States. Again, tried and true public re-framing of reality worked. 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. Merchants of Doubt How a Handful of Scientists Obscured. We ignore this message at our peril."Elizabeth Kolbert Merchants of Doubt has been praisedand attackedaround the world, for reasons easy to understand. "Doubt is our product," wrote one tobacco executive. Facebook, Follow us on In it, she outlined the similarities between the political fight around climate change and the earlier debates about . Facebook, Follow us on Only this time around, the enemies of awareness have struck back, and it aint pretty. A documentary that looks at pundits-for-hire who present themselves as scientific authorities as they speak about topics like toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals and climate change. Their adversaries saw these as scientific issues, not clashes of ideology, which gave GMI an advantage. 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. Design and build by Upstatement. For Seitz and his colleagues, GMI represented a decisive step away from the scientific community and from science itself. In 1981, Oreskes and Conway write, the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association together contributed $300,000 to research. (Along with Jerry Falwell, Weyrich founded the group Moral Majority.). 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 . (PG-13. In the sequence in which they appear in the film, they are: The film embeds commentary and performances by magician Jamy Ian Swiss. 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. Over a thousand experts signed a petition stating that they would refuse any government funding of projects that could further SDI. The misleading appendix was written by Fred Singer. The most prominent of these tactics is the cultivation of scientists and others who successfully cast doubt on the scientific results. BLOCK: There's a moment in the film where you interview climate scientist James Hansen, who's been one of the strongest voices sounding the alarm about the risks of climate change, the real dangers, and he admits to you that scientists make lousy communicators. The principle cause is the release of sulfur and nitrogen by the burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity. A Climate of Doubt, which is a PBS Frontline documentary, chronicles a decisive moment in American history when the politicalization of climate change came to a head. 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 . Merchants of Doubt Quotes Showing 1-30 of 137 "While the idea of equal time for opposing opinions makes sense in a two-party political system, it does not work for science, because science is not about opinion. Report: Countries need an impossible amount of land to meet climate pledges. 1999-2022 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Republicans and Democrats were opposed to it in '08, and all of a sudden it becomes acceptable very quickly. We are capable of coming up with solutions if we put our mind to it, but at the same time, we tend to not want to think about this as a problem. The move enraged Seitz and his colleagues Nierenberg and Robert Jastrow. "If you read just one book on climate change this year, read Merchants of Doubt. 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. Praise For Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to 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. Director Robert Kenner Writers Erik M. Conway (original book) Robert Kenner Naomi Oreskes (original book) Stars Frederick Singer Naomi Oreskes Jamy Ian Swiss Seitz and the tobacco industry were a perfect fit. The documentaries A Climate of Doubt and Merchants of Doubt both take up this history, though in somewhat different ways. Review of the must read book Merchants of Doubt. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. The documentary is based on her book, "Merchants of Doubt," published in 2010. And let's listen to some voices of climate change skeptics. 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 documentary Merchants of Doubt portrays climate skeptics using the same deceptive techniques - and even the same cast of spin doctors. 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. And as they say, they don't have to win, they just have to create doubt and delay. Answering Climate Change Skeptics Naomi Oreskes. Merchants of Doubt has left me frustrated that lobbyists and "experts" have blocked all meaningful steps to avert environment disaster. Wealthy nations pledged to fund climate adaptation abroad. Robert Kenner, the documentarian who made "Food, Inc.," is back with "Merchants of Doubt," which approaches the climate change controversy, already well covered in film, from a somewhat . And they can't compete with the Marc Moranos of the world, who are quite charming, quite funny, quite fast and have studied PR techniques in a way that the scientists have not. A brilliant disinformation campaign by the Merchants of Doubt has stoked public fears about the economic consequences of climate action and kept a fake debate alive even though the scientific consensus is overwhelming that climate change is happening and humans are the reason why. The ultimate goal hasnt changed since the tobacco days preventing government regulation of industry. Right-wing ministers are potent merchants of certainty. Donate today to keep our climate news free. Regardless of ones personal beliefs, its tough to respect a movie that ultimately invites viewers to question every case of propaganda except its own. BLOCK: Robert Kenner, director of the film "Merchants Of Doubt." In 1982, Nierenberg was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to lead a review of the scientific evidence concerning acid rain. The issue at the center of events at the time had no obvious relation to climate change. The principal distraction tactic has been the use of convincing personalities who claim that the uncertainties in the risks militate against taking action. Whole industries bankrolled their research, sometimes laundering the money through front groups with innocuous names. When it is on topic, it's quite educational, illustrating just how people are . Copyright 2015 NPR. By extension, the audience is supposed to determine that climate change is exactly what they are told it is. Here's How. "[12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". They are the. 100% of climate scientists agree that global warming is not only real, but is man-made. The other merchants of doubt profiled by Oreskes and Conway traveled a similar path. 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. It's called. Although most of these scientists were influential men in themselves (and they are all men), they could not have done as much damage without powerful allies. Instagram, Follow us on It is, and we ignore this message at our peril."--Elizabeth Kolbert, author of "Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change" "There can be no science without doubt: brute dogma leaves no room for inquiry. Bottom line, a new study out You can't be afraid of the absolute hand-to-hand combat metaphorically BLOCK: So what is that hand-to-hand combat that he's talking about there? Their campaign against climate change science has been by far their most effective, and it's the only one that is still ongoing. "[15], Merchants of Doubt was released as a DVD on July 7, 2015. 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. And if you have time to read two, reread Merchants of Doubt." - Grist "Brilliantly reported and written with brutal clarity . A documentary that looks at pundits-for-hire who present themselves as scientific authorities as they speak about topics like toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals and climate change. Environmental and industrial regulations were anathema to each. The documentary Merchants of Doubt portrays climate skeptics using the same deceptive techniques - and even the same cast of spin doctors. The amount of money available was staggering. KENNER: Well, Marc - his theory is that you go after the scientist and you attack them personally. All of this is a political debate about the role of government. For the most part, the executive summary agreed with the 1981 NAS study. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Climate is changing naturally. In the 1950s, Big Tobacco had begun using scientists to sow doubt about links between their product and cancer. Kenner: Thanks, Melissa, great to be here the intersection of climate justice Television 'cause they 're busy doing the work in fact, their stance become '08, and I think tribes move along the way, Singer took the Curb global climate change this year, read Merchants of Doubt how a Handful of scientists Obscured Society. 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