When Science Gets Distorted | Merchants Of Doubt (Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway)

I reject your doubt and substitute my own.

'Merchants Of Doubt' by Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway is a historical recount of the scientific debate regarding the effects of smoking, the DDT insecticide, chlorofluorocarbons and burning fossil fuels. The evidence proved there was health and environmental damage but a group of individual scientists waged a campaign to seed doubt against the science.

I summarised the book as follows. "It started solid but slid into subjective opinion towards the end. It was quite illuminating when they stuck to the book's subtitle but personally I would only read the first third or first half if I had to read it again."

I hope you have a fantastic day wherever you are in the world. Kyrin out!

Timeline:
(0:00) - Intro
(0:37) - Synopsis
(2:26) - Merchants: Buyers & sellers of commodities for profit
(12:03) - Doubt: Uncertainty, distrust & hesitation
(17:56) - Observations/Takeaways
(29:26) - Summary


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