Merchants of Doubt
How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming
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Narrated by:
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Liza Seneca
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Written by:
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Naomi Oreskes
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Erik M. Conway
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Al Gore - foreword
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway, read by Liza Seneca.
Featuring a new Foreword by former Vice President Al Gore
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
"Important and timely. We ignore this message at our peril."—Elizabeth Kolbert
Merchants of Doubt has been praised—and attacked—around the world, for reasons easy to understand. This book tells, with “brutal clarity” (Huffington Post), the disquieting 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. The same individuals who claim the science of global warming is “not settled” have also denied the truth about 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. Merchants of Doubt rolls back the rug on this dark corner of American science. Now with a new Foreword by former Vice President Al Gore, and with a new Postscript by the authors.
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What listeners say about Merchants of Doubt
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- Hardy
- 2024-04-24
Simply an amazing book.
I’ve read and now listened to this book. If you’re doubtful about the existence of anthropogenic climate change and/or doubtful about the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic climate change, please read this gem of a book. This is the story of how a handful of powerful industries (tobacco, oil) and individuals realized the science was correct and irrefutable, so rather than fight facts with facts (which they couldn’t) they cherry picked data, exaggerated claims, and outright lied in order to create doubt about the veracity of the work of thousands of dedicated scientists. All so they could continue business as usual, environmental risks be damned. S. Fred Singer, Fred Seitz, William Nierenberg. Dixy Lee Ray, James Inhofe, and all you other doubt-mongering blowhards: May you rot in hell for confusing the public and costing the world precious time, resources, and lives.
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