[Taxacom] Fw: "Merchants of Death" (ooopps, or more politely "Merchants of Doubt")

[Robin Leech]

Hi John and Cristian and others,

The scientists in the "Merchants of Doubt" were not just trying to affect and influence the public.  
More importantly, they were affecting and influencing the US Senate, the US House of Representatives, 
and most importantly (esp. starting with Reagan), the Office of the President of the US.  Thus, when it 
came to voting on issues such as acid rain, 

Had the results of their influences affected only those in the US, I might have sat here smugly and said 
to myself, "Hah!  That's their problem, not ours."

But, all of the six listed topics below in my first message also very strongly affect us here in Canada, 
so they have our problems, too.   Acid rain, for example, affected the northeastern US, but is also affected 
all the sugar maples in eastern Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces. 

Without going back into the book to see who said it first (I think it was Bill Nierenberg), "This is a billion 
dollar solution to a million dollar problem."  

Robin
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: John Landolt 
  To: Robin Leech 
  Cc: Kenneth Kinman ; Taxacom 
  Sent: Friday, April 22, 2011 9:18 AM
  Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Fw: "Merchants of Death" (ooopps, or more politely "Merchants of Doubt")


  Robin, Ken, et al:


  I strongly concur with the comments you have expressed about the "Merchants of Doubt" .  This insidious problem relates to individuals (scientists or otherwise) who connect themselves and are paid by special interest lobbying groups to simple muddy the waters enough so that the general public is more willing to accept the idea that they are safer with the status quo, even though the status quo is frequently (not always) detrimental to their (general public) self interest.


  It's one way to make a buck if you have no scruples or you can ignore them.


  My (less than) 2 cents


  John


  John C. Landolt, Ph.D.
  Research Professor of Biology, Emeritus
  Shepherd University




  On Apr 22, 2011, at 10:19 AM, Robin Leech wrote:


      Hi Ken,


      You are totally wrong.  The doubt merchants ARE scientists, big
      name scientists, and the ones who started with tobacco are the
      same key ones who are now arguing against man-made problems
      in global warming.


      Here are a few names: Frederick Seitz, Fred  S. Singer, Bill Nierenberg.


      It all started in the mid-50s with physicist Frederick Seitz.  He and a
      cadre of other top US scientists were hired by the tobacco industry,
      firstly the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.  They were involved
      in the following:
      a) tobacco and cancer
      b) SDI - aka "star wars"
      c) acid rain
      d) Ozone hole
      e) second-hand smoke
      f) global warming.


      And they did a revisionist attack on Rachel Carson. Reading
      this book may give yo an entirely different view of former Prez
      Ronald Reagan, too.


      Their method, simply put, was to cast doubt on substantiated
      and good research, yet not countering with any research
      results of their own.


      If you read only one book this year, let this be it.


      Robin


      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: "Kenneth Kinman" <kennethkinman at webtv.net>
      To: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
      Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2011 10:02 PM
      Subject: [Taxacom] "Merchants of Death" (ooopps,or more politely 
      "Merchants of Doubt")




        Hi Robin,
              The "merchants of doubt" is probably too mild a phrase.  They are
        more likely in the longer run to be branded the "merchants of death" by
        future generations.  Therefore, they are likely to be branded (in the
        long run) as extreme propagandists, not scientists in any true sense of
        the word, and selling their Faustian souls to corporate "devils" for a
        short-term gain.
              First they argued for decades that tobacco was not proven to be
        harmful, and now they argue that "global warming" is also not harmful,
        or at most an inconvenience.  Either they are totally ignorant or they
        just don't care about the suffering of those who ultimately support
        their extravagant, wasteful lives.
                     -----------Ken


        --------------------------------------------------------------
        Robin Leech wrote:
            And, Richard, if you read the book by Oreskes & Conway, MERCHANTS
        OF DOUBT, 2010, you will see the reason that a few well-placed people
        don't want or need any static from others.
        It is a book I strongly recommend all of us read.  Even though it is
        about US situations, I can see similar things here in Canada, so it has
        strongly affected the way I view and no longer trust our govt.
        Robin




        _______________________________________________


        Taxacom Mailing List
        Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
        http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom


        The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either of 
        these methods:


        (1) http://taxacom.markmail.org


        Or (2) a Google search specified as: 
        site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here










    _______________________________________________


    Taxacom Mailing List
    Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
    http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom


    The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either of these methods:


    (1) http://taxacom.markmail.org


    Or (2) a Google search specified as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here