Daniele (He/Him) reviewed Merchants of Doubt by Erik M Conway
How some scientists attacked science in the name of free market ideology
5 stars
This book is great. Despite being 10 years old, it remains extremely relevant today. The main protagonists of the events the book focuses on (Fred Singer, Frederick Seitz, William Nierenberg and others) are dead, but the tactic of manufacturing doubt to advance a conservative, free market-oriented political agenda is very much alive. Among the topics the book focuses on are the health effects of tobacco smoke, acid rain, the ozone hole, and of course global warming. In all these cases and others, a group of scientists (always the same people) challenged the scientific consensus not with science and research, but by manufacturing doubt. The objective of their effort was not to advance knowledge, despite their ostensibly reasonable claims that "we need more research", but to bring into question established facts. Supported by the tobacco industry, and later by the oil industry, they misrepresented the science (and attacked the scientists) that …
This book is great. Despite being 10 years old, it remains extremely relevant today. The main protagonists of the events the book focuses on (Fred Singer, Frederick Seitz, William Nierenberg and others) are dead, but the tactic of manufacturing doubt to advance a conservative, free market-oriented political agenda is very much alive. Among the topics the book focuses on are the health effects of tobacco smoke, acid rain, the ozone hole, and of course global warming. In all these cases and others, a group of scientists (always the same people) challenged the scientific consensus not with science and research, but by manufacturing doubt. The objective of their effort was not to advance knowledge, despite their ostensibly reasonable claims that "we need more research", but to bring into question established facts. Supported by the tobacco industry, and later by the oil industry, they misrepresented the science (and attacked the scientists) that showed how tobacco smoke caused cancer, the environmental risks of acid rain, and the reality of global warming. As detailed in the last part of the book, the ideology behind these attacks on science is free market fundamentalism, the belief that free market is the only system that can guarantee freedom and the best way to allocate resources. Free market will solve all the problems, and regulations are not only not needed, but harmful. The problem with this is that reality disagrees. Tobacco smoke, acid rain, global warming are all examples of free market failures and direct refutations of those beliefs. Attacking science becomes necessary to defend the ideology, and the profits of the industries involved. This is a very important book, not only to know about the merchants of doubt of the past, but to identify the ones of today.
