Merchants of Doubt

How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming

By: Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, Al Gore - foreword

Narrated by: Liza Seneca

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.©2011 Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Clash of economic and political interests with science

What an incredible read! Merchants of doubt has been a remarkable eye-opening text, going a long way to embolden us to question a number of government policies and not just take them on face value based on biased 'experts' and charlatans' endorsements or opinions. Good read, I recommend!

Urgency to act

Complacency is not the answer. We must combat misinformation and act now. In our own small way, we all must respond.

Thoughtful presentation of economic interests restraining public health advances.

Thoughtful presentation of economic interests restraining public health advances. Cigarette smoking, acid rain, the ozone hole, and climate change are all subject to being limited by public awareness. Unfortunately those who benefit economically from maintaining the status quo have worked hard to frighten the public about efforts to make things better. While thins are getting better we still have a long ways to go.
I’m sorry the impact of smoking on heart disease was only touched on tangentially. From my perspective that was the greatest social cost of smoking.

heroic

I can't praise this book enough. the keys to our society escaping the whirlpool of disinformation we are drowning in. absolutely essential.

Required reading for every informed citizen

This is a superb work of immense recent history, investigative reporting and analysis about why American society and government delayed action on climate change and other crucial public health issues over the past several decades. It is a great testament to the value of scientific literary and living as an informed citizen in a fragile democracy.