Snuffing out science

A look at how, contrary to evidence, a few scientists backed by big corporations have sold and marketed opposing claims to stir up doubt and stave off government regulation.

By JAMES P. LENFESTEY, Special to the Star Tribune
Last update: June 19, 2010 - 2:50 PM

According to science historians Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway in their important book, "Merchants of Doubt," tobacco giant Philip Morris invented the modern tactic of merchandising scientific doubt to stave off regulation. They demonstrate convincingly that the same technique -- often involving the same few miscreant scientists -- is behind today's alarming public misunderstanding of the scientific consensus on global warming.

By sowing doubt about the link between smoking and cancer, chlorofluorocarbons and the ozone hole, second-hand smoke and cancer, and, now, a human impact on climate, scientists S. Fred Singer, Frederick Seitz and a few others used their legitimate credentials to undermine public scientific understanding, putting off regulation of environmental pollutants, sometimes for decades.

(More here.)