Merchants of doubt

A sure sign of late winter is that schools run short of snow days, and more 'climate change is a hoax' messages appear in Speak Out.

In 2010 a popular book entitled "Merchants of Doubt" was published. In it the authors study such issues as smoking, ozone depletion and climate change, and show the remarkable similarities in each story. First, scientists identify a significant threat and suggest solutions. Then the economic interests of those threatened by those solutions use their resources to sow doubt and slow the work of scientists -- often with the help of well-funded "grassroots" organizations.

In case you think that there's a big leap from cigarettes to climate change, keep in mind that pretty recently there were still loud voices calling the health risks of cigarettes "unproven" and "unfounded."

In the 1990s a friend mentioned that his favorite radio host was saying that ozone depletion was "a big hoax." Thankfully, CFC's were soon to be phased out anyway, and we face a lower risk of skin cancer as a result.

There are a number of guilty parties in these stories: a few politically motivated scientists, corporations with deep pockets, and a largely scientifically illiterate popular media. And of course we are guilty as well -- a public eager to hear something that allows us to avoid painful and perhaps expensive choices. As a prominent meteorologist put it: "We're eager to believe the worst about the bringers of inconvenient news and the best about the merchants of comforting doubts."

BRIAN ALWORTH, Cape Girardeau