No offense to Stan and Kathy, because their book is interesting and contains some good stuff, but a far better book to read (especially if you're Pixelsmith) is Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, by science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway.
From the publisher (which jibes exactly with my own thoughts - slightly edited by me):
It tells a very disturbing story of how a cadre of influential scientists have clouded public understanding of scientific facts to advance a right-waing political and economic agenda. 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, andhave produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming (as can be seen with the consensus NRC reports I mentioned to Stan). 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. The book shows how ideology and corporate interests, aided by a too-compliant media and a core group of people who want to believe that everything is just fine, and who are more afraid of multinational institutions than they are about the truth confronting us about things like global warming, have skewed public understanding of some of the most pressing issues of our era.
From the review in Science:
"In their fascinating and important study, Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway offer convincing evidence for a surprising and disturbing thesis. Opposition to scientifically well-supported claims about the dangers of cigarette smoking, the difficulties of the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars"), the effects of acid rain, the existence of the ozone hole, the problems caused by secondhand smoke, and—ultimately—the existence of anthropogenic climate change was used in "the service of political goals and commercial interests" to obstruct the transmission to the American public of important information…Because it is so thorough in disclosing how major policy decisions have been delayed or distorted, Merchants of Doubt deserves a wide readership. It is tempting to require that all those engaged in the business of conveying scientific information to the general public should read it."
From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
"An important book…The next time a friend or Fox News commentator or political candidate assaults you with the claim that "climate change isn't happening" or "isn't caused by human activities," you will recognize the source of their colossal misunderstanding. The good news is, honest science wins in the end. The bad news: The earth is heating up while this artificially heated debate rages, though Merchants of Doubt, if widely read, should help douse the media flames."
And my favourite, from the Economist, hardly a leftist publication:
"In this powerful book, Oreskes and Conway show how big tobacco's disreputable and self-serving tactics were adapted for later use in a number of debates about the environment. Their story takes in nuclear power, missile defence, acid rain and the ozone layer. In all these debates a relatively small cadre of right-wing scientists, some of them eminent, worked through organisations sometimes created specifically for the purpose to take on a scientific establishment that they perceived to be dangerously unsympathetic to the interests of capital and national security."
Of course, I'm sure Pixelsmith will rush right out to buy it. Or perhaps he likes being duped... which is ironic considering his belief in all things conspiracy-oriented. Well, here's a real conspiracy between big business, the right wing, the national security state and science, to obscure the truth. If you choose not to accept it, then who's the real sheep here?
As for Stan, he's right - science is wrong sometimes. And this time, he's one of those scientists.
