Dr. David Zaruk is the Risk-Monger. He has been an EU risk and science communications specialist since 2000, active in EU policy events from REACH and SCALE to the Pesticides Directive, from Science in Society questions to the use of the Precautionary Principle. He was part of the team that set up GreenFacts to encourage a wider use of evidence-based decision-making in the EU on environmental health matters. Dr. Zaruk is a professor at Odisee University College where he lectures on Communications, Marketing, EU Lobbying and PR.

In this episode, we start off by talking about the tactics that bad environmental activists use, how they oversimplify complex problems, and their anti-capitalism ideology. After referring to the importance of experts consulting environmental and health policy, we talk about the antiscientific approach that has been dominating the European Union, when it comes to agriculture, energy and the environment. We then move on to the SlimeGate series that Dr. Zaruk has been releasing, and an exposé of how tort law firms, scientists, NGOs, activists and politicians get together to promote pseudoscience and get easy money. Toward the end, we speak about the important difference between hazard and risk, and how fearmongers exploit people’s ignorance about that topic, and also about how the incidence of cancer has been declining over time.

Time Links:

01:04 Good and bad environmental activism

03:00 Oversimplifying complex problems

05:04 Anti-corporativism and anti-capitalism approaches

08:29 We need more experts in politics

15:00 The EU, glyphosate, GMOs, and organic farming

28:33 EU’s policies on climate change, nuclear energy, and renewables

36:43 The SlimeGate series: tort law firms, paid scientists, NGOs, activists and politicians

50:40 Hazard vs Risk, and how fearmongers exploit this difference

1:01:34 The incidence of cancer is going down

1:05:28 Follow Dr. Zaruk’s work!

Follow Dr. Zaruk’s work:

Risk-Monger blog: https://risk-monger.com/

Facebook page: https://tinyurl.com/ybqghrp7

Twitter handle: @zaruk

A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE AND JUSTIN WATERS!

A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY FIRST PRODUCER,

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