Merchants of Doubt (2014) Reviews

• The art of deception, applied to scientific consensus

  allch2015-03-13

  This is not a film about the science of climate change, second-hand smoke, or risks of flame-retardants. It is about the tactics used (repeatedly) to mislead the public about that science. Most notably, the "merchants of doubt" foster unwarranted images of uncertainty and obscure scientific consensus, and even threaten the scientists themselves (and then joke about it). All the while they hide their sources of funding and conflicts of interest that might lead a reasonable person to measure their claims. The documentary evidence and testimony presented is compelling--including, ironically, the voices of the con-artists themselves (Marc Morano, Fred Singer, Tim Phillips). Especially noteworthy is testimony by those who discovered the deceptions despite prior sympathetic beliefs: Matthew Crawford, Michael Shermer, Congr. Bob Inglis. Striking imagery. Amusing moments. But also chilling when one reflects how these voices obscure harms to our health and environment. Worse, they appeal to the banner of free speech and other "freedoms" (to do harm, in the name of unregulated business, I suppose), and imagine that sheer will or personal belief can trump sound scientific conclusions. Other naysaying reviews one finds of this film will surely be further evidence of what the film itself exposes so well. Once revealed, never again concealed.

  More

• My fellow reviewers are sad people

  sirjonk2015-06-22

  The doc is enlightening, and timely. I worked in the tobacco litigation and this film gets it spot on. In the face of near universal consensus, tobacco companies hired marketing firms and paid scientists to poke holes in prevailing well established theory, attempting to cast doubt where anything less than 100% certainty exists, which in science, it essentially always does. Now the climate change deniers come out, in the face of 97% worldwide consensus, peddling the same nonsense. The doubters don't contest the data, which is indisputable. They instead attack the motives of 97% of the climatologists in the world. And their intended audience buys it hook line and sinker yet again. Reasonable doubt is essential to science, and in that meritocracy, the best explanation wins. Here, decades of data have made the situation clear. Yet, climate denier laymen, for some reason, choose to believe the 3% of scientists who are largely funded by the interests most likely to suffer financial harm should alternative energy be explored in full. You can't fix stupid.

  More

• A Must See Film For All Those Concerned About Climate Change

  dorothyjdavis2015-03-03

  My title says it all. And if you are on the fence this film may help you better assess what has been going on in the media. It appears that the people so thoroughly examined in the film -- lobbyists employed by the oil and gas industry (some of them formerly paid to defend tobacco) and their followers -- are now writing disparaging reviews of this excellent documentary film. I saw it at the New York Film Festival in October and have been recommending it and waiting for its release ever since. The book on which it is based -- "Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming" by Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway is also excellent. I would only add that some of those so confidently opposing the well-documented scientific evidence of climate change are not even scientists.

  More

• I Feel So Sad for My Kids and Their Kids

  Hitchcoc2015-03-21

  There's no doubt when the Supreme Court gave free rein to likes of the Koch brothers and their ilk, we sold out our future. The fact that people have betrayed science to listen to a bunch of the nastiest people on the face of the earth. Of course, if it were in their own interest (like medical science) they would be all over it. Apparently these people want less government, but they don't hesitate to criticize the government when their homes are washed away by hurricanes and floods. Of course, they won't be the ones suffering. Let's say it the way it is right now. There are a huge number of people who would sell the future of this planet to save a few bucks. The guys on this video admitted they had no knowledge of climatology. They enjoyed sticking it to the scientific community because, of course, they are communists. Every time someone says something against big business (like the one's outsourcing and abusing their employees) they are communists. Of course, these same people are right there sucking up their entitlements. I have nothing against free markets but when your actions cost people their lives. The sad thing is that these guys are mostly old and won't be around to see when their actions cause death and destruction.

  More

• Beware of the wolves in the sheepskins.

  Reno-Rangan2015-10-14

  I want to begin with what usually comes in the final paragraph in any review that it is a must see film. No matter who you are, whatever your profession is, you must not skip it for many reasons. The film was based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Naomi Oreskes and directed by the Oscar nominated documentary 'Food, Inc.' filmmaker. Recently I read somewhere that 'there are more fake flamingos in the world than real ones'. I thought it was a stat that makes clear there are very less flamingos than we presumed. But the point is it gives a different meaning when the same line used as a reference for this film. It is going to be big stride, yes it is. It all began after the WWII and carried out throughout 50 years during the Cold War, but just recent decades everyone realised its seriousness. When someone interferes with our personal thing, stating that he's an official from the respective field, we ask for the identity proof. But what if it is a conspiracy, how we are going to know it. The common people are always falling prey for such tricks because of the corrupted ministers and the powerful giant corporates. Like, we're the sheep herd and they are the wolves in the sheep's skin. This film is not trying to expose them their entire wrong doings, but on a particular topic, and that is the Global Warming. The media and press plays a crucial part here, but some of them opted a wrong path. Maybe because of the poor knowledge and investigation, or influenced people around them. So the story opens with the cigarettes, how the tobacco companies fooled people in the 60s, 70s till the 90s. The book this movie adapted was written by an American historian, so it's all about the things that happened in the States. But it is still very much the world's concern too, as America is one of the top countries to export modern science and technology to all the corners, especially the third world countries. "We're leaving our children and grandchildren, the legacy of people who failed to lead." Today's world's hot topic is, the climate change. Because of human there are plenty of species gone extinct than the natural extinct happened in the presence of human alongside. So, the biggest them all is he's posing a same threat to himself. If that happens, the human will be wiped out. The earth will recycle itself over the thousand years of evolution and the life will be restored, the new kind. Human is the only animal on the earth who do stuff for pleasure and those pleasures comes in many ways. One such thing is the money. Science is not one hundred per cent perfect, not yet, but that is the closest estimation that we have today to predict anything advancely. The world is not the same compared to 100 years ago, the religion is no more threat to the science. The evolution in science is taking place at a brisk pace, lots of stuffs were studied, understood, discovered in the last two decades than over two thousand years. Those who are doing their work is constantly interrupted by the new kind of troublemakers. Those people are the hired counterparts to the scientists who claims they are experts, but why they are doing it is a disgusting truth. It is a very good message movie. You might probably realise from now on who to believe and why, because that was this documentary's notion that makes people open their eyes to the truth and reality. If you're still in your blindfold, then you're on the wrong side with the wrong people. I want to make you clear on one final thing that this documentary is not trying to prove the Global Warming theory, but it was a debate between the people who tried to stop it and the people who tried to prove it was not a hoax. It is about exposing the dirty works. 9/10

  More