Book Summary
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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. It is about evidence.
Merchants of Doubt
For understandable reasons, Merchants of Doubt has been acclaimed and criticized all around the world. The unsettling 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 is told in this book, with "brutal clarity" (Huffington Post). The same people who assert that the science of global warming is "unsettled" also deny research tying smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain, and CFCs to the ozone hole. One tobacco executive wrote, "Doubt is our product." It was provided by these "experts." The film Merchants of Doubt pulls the rug out from under this bleak area of American science.
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. It is about evidence.
