Merchants Of Doubt Analysis

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Thoughts and Perspectives on Merchants of Doubt In their book entitled Merchants of Doubt, authors Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway highlight numerous parallels and uncover many untold truths pertaining to highly controversial topics such as climate change, ozone depletion, and tobacco smoking. Oreskes and Conway provide evidence and correlations that a loosely knit group of scientists, those funded behind the scenes through private corporations or political affiliation challenges the scientific consensus on many controversial contemporary issues. The theme of the book is essentially the idea of doubt and confusion used as a tool employed by industries and private corporations in attempt to keep controversy on contemporary issues alive. By doing so, any further action pertaining to the deregulation and or regulation of a specific issue is delayed, resulting in little to no change. One of the more interesting topics that caught my attention especially is the topic of the tobacco industry. In the chapter entitled, “Doubt is our Product,” Oreskes and Conway show that in the 1950s, scientific evidence emerged demonstrating beyond a reasonable doubt that the tar in tobacco smoke caused cancer. Interestingly, although this information was made public, the tobacco industry knew this information well before it was publicized. In a panic, the tobacco industry responded by trying to get science on its side, spending large sums of money on scientific and medical research that could possibly show that tobacco was a non-hazardous product. As a result, tobacco executives funded aggressive public relations campaigns that supplied the public with a “pro-cigarette” message along with facts that there was no scientific basis for the charges against tobacco. Additionally, big tobacco retaliated in the form of developing an extensive body of scientifically, well-grounded data useful

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