If I was technologically capable I would make it so that The Who's song "Won't Get Fooled Again" automatically played when you read this post, but I have no idea how to do that so I'll just put a link to the song on YouTube. (Also I'm wearing my Who T-shirt while writing this which I feel is appropriate.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q
The final chapters of Naomi Orestes and Erik Conway's Merchants of Doubt features the same characters as they continue to fool the public on issues such as second hand smoke, global warming, and pesticides. Although this section was just as detailed I did find that it read better, maybe due to being more contemporary issues that I had more prior information on. However, I am still happy to finally be done with this book. Overall I just didn't enjoy reading it. This is probably due to the saying "ignorance is bliss." Knowing these stories about how a small group of politically powerful scientists have deliberately misconstrued facts to support a political agenda was just infuriating. I rarely enjoy political discussions due them making me angry, so I felt like this book was overall too political for me.
One thing that stands out especially well in the final chapters is the overall irony of the contrarians' actions. For example, these people were so motivated to stop Communism, that they end up embracing the ideals of the Soviet government by changing facts and misconstruing data to support their political propaganda. They critiqued the scientists for using "scare tactics" when they were using these tactics themselves, using the fear of Communism. They kept criticizing the scientists for using data to promote a political agenda when they were the ones to do so. They were completely in support of the free market system, but denied the information from scientists needed for the free market to fix environmental problems. And the greatest irony of all is that by delaying the consensus on environmental issues to stall government regulations has necessitated the need for these regulations.
There was also the personal irony for me when talking with my family members about these types of topics. Last Thanksgiving my brother went on a rant about how "global warming is a government conspiracy" whereas this book makes the case that covering up climate change is a government conspiracy. I also was surprised to see the site junkscience.com mentioned in this book, which my aunt told me I should check out (I did for like two seconds.)
The epilogue of this book talks about the nature of science and how the public's view of science needs to change so that they "don't get fooled again" (thus the Who song.) The general public is not knowledgable about the nature of science, including concepts of uncertainty and expertise. The contrarians in this story were all retired physicists who were not experts in ecology, but yet were using their political power to influence the public. They kept using statements of how things weren't "proven" so therefore not true. Although scientists know that uncertainty is part of science, the public tends to think in absolutes. I still hear people talk about how evolution hasn't been proven. I think the best way to prevent this doubt message is to educate the public about the scientific process. We can give them the facts, but there can always be someone who disputes them, so I think it is more important to get the public to see things more critically and to be able to evaluate the facts for themselves.
I am also glad to be done with this book, although I also kind of loved it. I'm so glad we are all reading it together so that we can read it in a timely fashion and move on. I will check out this song of which you speak...maybe we need a conservation non-fiction seminar soundtrack. I hope we can talk about what we can do tomorrow to reverse the trend of public confusion about the process of science--and if that is the key!
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