Merchants of Doubt
Encyclopedia
Merchants of Doubt is a 2010 book by the American science historians
Naomi Oreskes
and Erik M. Conway
. It identifies parallels between the climate change debate and earlier controversies over tobacco smoking
, acid rain
and the hole in the ozone layer. Oreskes and Conway write that in each case "keeping the controversy alive" by spreading doubt and confusion after a scientific consensus had been reached, was the basic strategy of those opposing action. In particular, they say that Fred Seitz, Fred Singer
, and a few other contrarian
scientists joined forces with conservative think tank
s and private corporations to challenge the scientific consensus on many contemporary issues.
The Marshall Institute and Fred Singer, two of the subjects, have been critical of the book, but most reviewers received it favorably. One reviewer said that Merchants of Doubt is exhaustively researched and documented, and may be one of the most important books of 2010. Another reviewer saw the book as his choice for best science book of the year.
about the dangers of smoking, the effects of acid rain, the existence of the ozone hole, and the existence of anthropogenic climate change. The authors write that this has resulted in "deliberate obfuscation" of the issues which has had an influence on public opinion
and policy-making. Oreskes and Conway reach the conclusion that:
All three are physicists: Singer was a rocket scientist, whereas Nierenberg and Seitz worked on the atomic bomb. Oreskes and Conway state: "small numbers of people can have large, negative impacts, especially if they are organised, determined and have access to power".
Seitz and Singer were seen to be contrarians in the tobacco debate. Seitz directed a program for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
that funded research defending tobacco. Singer co-wrote a report denying the risks of second-hand smoke, funded by the Tobacco Institute
, which attacked the science behind the finding that there were health risks from passive smoking
and said that it was "part of a political agenda to expand government control over peoples lives".
Seitz and Singer helped to form institutions such as the Heritage Foundation
, Competitive Enterprise Institute
and Marshall Institute in the United States. Funded by corporation
s and conservative foundations
, these organizations have opposed many forms of state intervention or regulation of U.S. citizens. The book lists similar tactics in each case: "discredit the science, disseminate false information, spread confusion, and promote doubt".
The book says that over the course of more than 20 years, Singer, Seitz, (and a few other contrarian scientists) did almost no original scientific research on the issues which they debated. They had once been prominent researchers, but by the time they turned to the topics presented in Merchants of Doubt, they were, the authors state, mostly attacking the reputation and work of others. On every issue they were opposed to the scientific consensus
.
In December 2010, in an article for American Thinker, Fred Singer states that Merchants of Doubt attacks several well-known senior physicists, including the late Fred Seitz, a former president of the United States National Academy of Sciences
. Singer says that Oreskes and Conway claim to be academic historians, yet they have operated in a "completely unprofessional way", by ignoring factual information, not bothering to consult primary sources, and not interviewing any of the scientists in question. Singer goes on to say, "No matter what the environmental issue—ozone depletion, acid rain, pesticide
s, etc.—any and all scientific opposition based on objective facts is blamed on an imagined involvement with tobacco companies. None of this is true, of course." He says that he serves on the board of an anti-smoking organization, finds secondhand smoke irritating and unpleasant, and has not been paid by the tobacco lobby or joined any of their front organizations.
were all fiercely anti-communist
and they viewed government regulation as a step towards socialism
and communism. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, they looked for another great threat to free market capitalism and found it in environmentalism. They feared that an over-reaction to environmental problems would lead to heavy-handed government intervention in the marketplace and intrusion into people's lives. However, the strategy of denying the reality of environmental problems (such as global warming, acid rain, and ozone destruction) does not make them go away. Oreskes and Conway state that the longer the delay the worse these problems get, and the more likely it is that governments will need to take the draconian measures that conservatives most fear. They say that Seitz, Singer, Nierenberg and Jastrow denied the scientific evidence, contributed to a strategy of delay, and thereby helped to bring about the situation they most dreaded.
says that Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway are "two outstanding historians". He also calls Merchants of Doubt a "fascinating and important study". Kitcher says that the apparently harsh claims against Nierenberg, Seitz, and Singer are "justified through a powerful dissection of the ways in which prominent climate scientists, such as Roger Revelle
and Ben Santer, were exploited or viciously attacked in the press".
In The Christian Science Monitor
, Will Buchanan says that Merchants of Doubt is exhaustively researched and documented, and may be one of the most important books of 2010. Oreskes and Conway are seen to demonstrate that the doubt merchants are not "objective scientists" as the term is popularly understood. Instead, they are "science-speaking mercenaries" hired by corporations to process numbers to prove that the corporations’ products are safe and useful. Buchanan says they are salesmen, not scientists.
Bud Ward published a review of the book in The Yale Forum on Climate and the Media. He wrote that Oreskes and Conway use a combination of thorough scholarly research combined with writing reminiscent of the best investigative journalism, to "unravel deep common links to past environmental and public health controversies". In terms of climate science, the authors' leave "little doubt about their disdain for what they regard as the misuse and abuse of science by a small cabal of scientists they see as largely lacking in requisite climate science expertise".
Phil England writes in The Ecologist
that the strength of the book is the rigour of the research and the detailed focus on key incidents. He points out, however, that the climate change chapter is a only 50 pages long, and recommends several other books for readers who want to get a broader picture of this aspect: Jim Hoggan’s Climate Cover-Up, George Monbiot
’s Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning and Ross Gelbspan
’s The Heat is On and Boiling Point. England also points out that there is little coverage about the millions of dollars Exxon Mobil has put into funding a plethora of groups actively involved in promoting climate change denial
and doubt.
A review in The Economist
calls this a powerful book which articulates the politics involved and the degree to which scientists have sometimes manufactured and exaggerated environmental uncertainties. But the authors fail to fully explain how environmental action has still often proved possible despite countervailing factors.
Robert N. Proctor
writes in American Scientist
that Merchants of Doubt is a detailed and artfully written book. He says the book covers the "history of manufactured ignorance" and refers to some other books in this genre: David Michaels
’s Doubt is their Product
(2008), Chris Mooney’s The Republican War on Science
(2009), David Rosner
and Gerald Markowitz’s Deceit and Denial (2002), and his own book Cancer Wars
(1995).
Robin McKie in The Guardian
states that Oreskes and Conway deserve considerable praise for this outstanding book and for exposing the influence of a small group of Cold War
ideologues. Their tactic of spreading doubt has confused the public, first in the U.S. and then the U.K., about a series of key scientific issues such as global warming, even though scientists have actually become more certain about their research results. McKie points out that Merchants of Doubt includes detailed notes on all sources used, is clearly and cleanly outlined, carefully paced, and is "my runaway contender for best science book of the year".
William O’Keefe and Jeff Kueter from the Marshall Institute
provide a critique of Merchants of Doubt and wonder why such a book was written. They say that although it has the appearance of a scholarly work, it discredits and undermines the reputations of people who in their lifetime contributed greatly to the American nation. They say that it does this by questioning their integrity, impugning their character, and questioning their judgement.
. She has degrees in geological science and a Ph.D.
in Geological Research and the History of Science. Her work came to public attention in 2004 with the publication of "The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change," in Science, in which she wrote that there was no significant disagreement in the scientific community about the reality of global warming from human causes. Erik M. Conway is the historian at NASA
's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
at the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena
.
History of science
The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....
Naomi Oreskes
Naomi Oreskes
Naomi Oreskes is an American science historian, and Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California San Diego. She has worked on studies of geophysics, environmental issues such as global warming, and the history of science...
and Erik M. Conway
Erik M. Conway
Erik M. Conway is the historian at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He is the author of several books....
. It identifies parallels between the climate change debate and earlier controversies over tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
, acid rain
Acid rain
Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions . It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen...
and the hole in the ozone layer. Oreskes and Conway write that in each case "keeping the controversy alive" by spreading doubt and confusion after a scientific consensus had been reached, was the basic strategy of those opposing action. In particular, they say that Fred Seitz, Fred Singer
Fred Singer
Siegfried Fred Singer is an Austrian-born American physicist and emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia...
, and a few other contrarian
Contrarian
In finance, a contrarian is one who attempts to profit by investing in a manner that differs from the conventional wisdom, when the consensus opinion appears to be wrong....
scientists joined forces with conservative think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
s and private corporations to challenge the scientific consensus on many contemporary issues.
The Marshall Institute and Fred Singer, two of the subjects, have been critical of the book, but most reviewers received it favorably. One reviewer said that Merchants of Doubt is exhaustively researched and documented, and may be one of the most important books of 2010. Another reviewer saw the book as his choice for best science book of the year.
Themes
Oreskes and Conway write that a handful of politically conservative scientists, with strong ties to particular industries, have "played a disproportionate role in debates about controversial questions". The book states that these scientists have challenged the scientific consensusScientific consensus
Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of study. Consensus implies general agreement, though not necessarily unanimity. Scientific consensus is not by itself a scientific argument, and it is not part of the...
about the dangers of smoking, the effects of acid rain, the existence of the ozone hole, and the existence of anthropogenic climate change. The authors write that this has resulted in "deliberate obfuscation" of the issues which has had an influence on public opinion
Public opinion on climate change
Public opinion on climate change is the aggregate of attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population concerning the science, economics, and politics of global warming. It is affected by media coverage of climate change.-Regional:...
and policy-making. Oreskes and Conway reach the conclusion that:
There are many reasons why the United States has failed to act on global warmingGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, but at least one is the confusion raised by Bill NierenbergWilliam NierenbergWilliam Aaron Nierenberg was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and was director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from 1965 through 1986. He was a co-founder of the George C. Marshall Institute in 1984.- Background :Nierenberg was born on February 13, 1919, at 213 E...
, Fred Seitz, and Fred SingerFred SingerSiegfried Fred Singer is an Austrian-born American physicist and emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia...
.
All three are physicists: Singer was a rocket scientist, whereas Nierenberg and Seitz worked on the atomic bomb. Oreskes and Conway state: "small numbers of people can have large, negative impacts, especially if they are organised, determined and have access to power".
Seitz and Singer
Seitz and Singer served in high levels of science administration, and had contact with admirals, generals, and even presidents. They also had considerable media experience, so they could obtain press coverage for their views. The authors state that, "They used their scientific credentials to present themselves as authorities, and they used their authority to discredit any science they didn't like".Seitz and Singer were seen to be contrarians in the tobacco debate. Seitz directed a program for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company , based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and founded by R. J. Reynolds in 1875, is the second-largest tobacco company in the U.S. . RJR is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc...
that funded research defending tobacco. Singer co-wrote a report denying the risks of second-hand smoke, funded by the Tobacco Institute
Tobacco Institute
The Tobacco Institute, Inc. was a United States tobacco industry trade group, founded in 1958 by the American tobacco industry.It was dissolved in 1998 as part of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.-Founding:...
, which attacked the science behind the finding that there were health risks from passive smoking
Passive smoking
Passive smoking is the inhalation of smoke, called secondhand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke , from tobacco products used by others. It occurs when tobacco smoke permeates any environment, causing its inhalation by people within that environment. Exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke causes...
and said that it was "part of a political agenda to expand government control over peoples lives".
Seitz and Singer helped to form institutions such as the Heritage Foundation
Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong...
, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Competitive Enterprise Institute
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit think tank founded on March 9, 1984 in Washington, D.C. by lobbyist Fred L. Smith, Jr to advance economic liberty and fight over-regulation by big government...
and Marshall Institute in the United States. Funded by corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
s and conservative foundations
Foundation (United States law)
A foundation in the United States is a type of charitable organization. However, the Internal Revenue Code distinguishes between private foundations and public charities...
, these organizations have opposed many forms of state intervention or regulation of U.S. citizens. The book lists similar tactics in each case: "discredit the science, disseminate false information, spread confusion, and promote doubt".
The book says that over the course of more than 20 years, Singer, Seitz, (and a few other contrarian scientists) did almost no original scientific research on the issues which they debated. They had once been prominent researchers, but by the time they turned to the topics presented in Merchants of Doubt, they were, the authors state, mostly attacking the reputation and work of others. On every issue they were opposed to the scientific consensus
Scientific consensus
Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of study. Consensus implies general agreement, though not necessarily unanimity. Scientific consensus is not by itself a scientific argument, and it is not part of the...
.
In December 2010, in an article for American Thinker, Fred Singer states that Merchants of Doubt attacks several well-known senior physicists, including the late Fred Seitz, a former president of the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
. Singer says that Oreskes and Conway claim to be academic historians, yet they have operated in a "completely unprofessional way", by ignoring factual information, not bothering to consult primary sources, and not interviewing any of the scientists in question. Singer goes on to say, "No matter what the environmental issue—ozone depletion, acid rain, pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
s, etc.—any and all scientific opposition based on objective facts is blamed on an imagined involvement with tobacco companies. None of this is true, of course." He says that he serves on the board of an anti-smoking organization, finds secondhand smoke irritating and unpleasant, and has not been paid by the tobacco lobby or joined any of their front organizations.
Free market fundamentalism
The book states that Seitz, Singer, Nierenberg and Robert JastrowRobert Jastrow
Robert Jastrow was an American astronomer, physicist and cosmologist. He was a leading NASA scientist, populist author and futurist.- Biography :...
were all fiercely anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
and they viewed government regulation as a step towards socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and communism. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, they looked for another great threat to free market capitalism and found it in environmentalism. They feared that an over-reaction to environmental problems would lead to heavy-handed government intervention in the marketplace and intrusion into people's lives. However, the strategy of denying the reality of environmental problems (such as global warming, acid rain, and ozone destruction) does not make them go away. Oreskes and Conway state that the longer the delay the worse these problems get, and the more likely it is that governments will need to take the draconian measures that conservatives most fear. They say that Seitz, Singer, Nierenberg and Jastrow denied the scientific evidence, contributed to a strategy of delay, and thereby helped to bring about the situation they most dreaded.
Reception
Philip Kitcher in ScienceScience (magazine)
Science was a general science magazine published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science . It was intended to "bridge the distance between science and citizen", aimed at a technically literate audience who may not work professionally in the sciences...
says that Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway are "two outstanding historians". He also calls Merchants of Doubt a "fascinating and important study". Kitcher says that the apparently harsh claims against Nierenberg, Seitz, and Singer are "justified through a powerful dissection of the ways in which prominent climate scientists, such as Roger Revelle
Roger Revelle
Roger Randall Dougan Revelle was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in the formative years of the University of California, San Diego and was one of the first scientists to study global warming and the movement of Earth's tectonic plates...
and Ben Santer, were exploited or viciously attacked in the press".
In The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
, Will Buchanan says that Merchants of Doubt is exhaustively researched and documented, and may be one of the most important books of 2010. Oreskes and Conway are seen to demonstrate that the doubt merchants are not "objective scientists" as the term is popularly understood. Instead, they are "science-speaking mercenaries" hired by corporations to process numbers to prove that the corporations’ products are safe and useful. Buchanan says they are salesmen, not scientists.
Bud Ward published a review of the book in The Yale Forum on Climate and the Media. He wrote that Oreskes and Conway use a combination of thorough scholarly research combined with writing reminiscent of the best investigative journalism, to "unravel deep common links to past environmental and public health controversies". In terms of climate science, the authors' leave "little doubt about their disdain for what they regard as the misuse and abuse of science by a small cabal of scientists they see as largely lacking in requisite climate science expertise".
Phil England writes in The Ecologist
The Ecologist
The Ecologist is a British environmental publication founded in 1970 by Edward Goldsmith. It addresses a wide range of environmental subjects and promotes an ecological systems thinking approach through its news stories, investigations and opinion articles. The Ecologist encourages its readers to...
that the strength of the book is the rigour of the research and the detailed focus on key incidents. He points out, however, that the climate change chapter is a only 50 pages long, and recommends several other books for readers who want to get a broader picture of this aspect: Jim Hoggan’s Climate Cover-Up, George Monbiot
George Monbiot
George Joshua Richard Monbiot is an English writer, known for his environmental and political activism. He lives in Machynlleth, Wales, writes a weekly column for The Guardian, and is the author of a number of books, including Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain and Bring on the...
’s Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning and Ross Gelbspan
Ross Gelbspan
Ross Gelbspan is an American writer and activist. He has written two books relating to global warming-- The Heat Is On and Boiling Point . The Heat Is On received national attention when President Bill Clinton told the press he was reading it. Boiling Point was the subject of the lead review in...
’s The Heat is On and Boiling Point. England also points out that there is little coverage about the millions of dollars Exxon Mobil has put into funding a plethora of groups actively involved in promoting climate change denial
Climate change denial
Climate change denial is a term used to describe organized attempts to downplay, deny or dismiss the scientific consensus on the extent of global warming, its significance, and its connection to human behavior, especially for commercial or ideological reasons...
and doubt.
A review in The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
calls this a powerful book which articulates the politics involved and the degree to which scientists have sometimes manufactured and exaggerated environmental uncertainties. But the authors fail to fully explain how environmental action has still often proved possible despite countervailing factors.
Robert N. Proctor
Robert N. Proctor
Robert Neel Proctor is an American historian of science and Professor of the History of Science at Stanford University. While a professor of the history of science at Pennsylvania State University in 1999, he became the first historian to testify against the tobacco industry.At Pennsylvania State...
writes in American Scientist
American Scientist
American Scientist is the bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi. Each issue includes four to five feature articles written by scientists and engineers. These authors review research in all fields of science...
that Merchants of Doubt is a detailed and artfully written book. He says the book covers the "history of manufactured ignorance" and refers to some other books in this genre: David Michaels
David Michaels
David Michaels is a pseudonym for the authors of novels in the Splinter Cell, EndWar, H.A.W.X , and Ghost Recon series, all of which were created by Ubisoft Entertainment and developed under Ubisoft's Tom Clancy license...
’s Doubt is their Product
Doubt is Their Product
Doubt Is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health is a 2008 book by David Michaels, published by Oxford University Press....
(2008), Chris Mooney’s The Republican War on Science
The Republican War on Science
The Republican War on Science is a book by Chris C. Mooney, an American journalist who focuses on the politics of science policy. In the book, Mooney discusses the Republican Party leadership's stance on science, and in particular that of the George W...
(2009), David Rosner
David Rosner
David Rosner is the Ronald H. Lauterstein Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Professor of History in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University...
and Gerald Markowitz’s Deceit and Denial (2002), and his own book Cancer Wars
Cancer Wars
Cancer Wars was a six part documentary that aired on PBS in 1997. The first episode discussed the history of cancer research such as contributions of epidemiologists at the University of Jena which were the first to document the link between cancer and smoking...
(1995).
Robin McKie in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
states that Oreskes and Conway deserve considerable praise for this outstanding book and for exposing the influence of a small group of Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
ideologues. Their tactic of spreading doubt has confused the public, first in the U.S. and then the U.K., about a series of key scientific issues such as global warming, even though scientists have actually become more certain about their research results. McKie points out that Merchants of Doubt includes detailed notes on all sources used, is clearly and cleanly outlined, carefully paced, and is "my runaway contender for best science book of the year".
William O’Keefe and Jeff Kueter from the Marshall Institute
George C. Marshall Institute
The George C. Marshall Institute is a politically conservative think tank established in 1984 in Washington, D.C. with a focus on scientific issues and public policy. In the 1980s, the Institute was engaged primarily in lobbying in support of the Strategic Defense Initiative...
provide a critique of Merchants of Doubt and wonder why such a book was written. They say that although it has the appearance of a scholarly work, it discredits and undermines the reputations of people who in their lifetime contributed greatly to the American nation. They say that it does this by questioning their integrity, impugning their character, and questioning their judgement.
Authors
Naomi Oreskes is Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California, San DiegoUniversity of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
. She has degrees in geological science and a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in Geological Research and the History of Science. Her work came to public attention in 2004 with the publication of "The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change," in Science, in which she wrote that there was no significant disagreement in the scientific community about the reality of global warming from human causes. Erik M. Conway is the historian at NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...
at the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
in Pasadena
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
.
See also
- Climate change controversy
- Climate change policy of the United States
- Fear, uncertainty and doubtFear, uncertainty and doubtFear, uncertainty and doubt, frequently abbreviated as FUD, is a tactic used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics and propaganda....
- Health effects of tobacco
- List of books about the politics of science
- List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming in contrast with Scientific opinion on climate changeScientific opinion on climate changeThe predominant scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth is in an ongoing phase of global warming primarily caused by an enhanced greenhouse effect due to the anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases...
- Media coverage of climate changeMedia coverage of climate changeMedia coverage of climate change has significant effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of...
- Tobacco control movement
- Tobacco politicsTobacco politicsTobacco politics refers to the politics surrounding the use and distribution of tobacco.-Taxation:Tobacco has been taxed by state governments in the United States for decades...
- Climate CapitalismClimate CapitalismClimate Capitalism: Capitalism in the Age of Climate Change is a 2011 book by L. Hunter Lovins and Boyd Cohen. It presents positive stories and examples of how profit-seeking companies are helping to save the planet...