Merchants of Doubt

I made the mistake of reading the user reviews before watching and was expecting a mediocre film. Thankfully it was much better than that. I found it to be thoroughly interesting and entertaining while doing a great job of detailing the depth of scumbaggery and deception behind the climate change denialist movement.

The imagery, interview editing, flow of the narrative, choice of people to interview, camera work were all outstanding. I highly recommend that anyone who is not already committed to denialism watch it. Some might find some parts shocking but overwhelmingly the evidence points to the views expressed in this film being correct.

I wasn't thrilled with the magic tricks being blended in to this excellent expose of science denial funded by big business. It just distracted from the excellent content showing strategic manipulation of the public and legislation by unbelievably conscience-less minions, starting with big tobacco and followed by flame retardant chemicals and climate change science. As a movie I would rate it lower but the material presented was worth more, thus the 8 stars. One tidbit from the film: the average American sofa contains 2 POUNDS of flame retardant chemicals. These of course escape into the bodies that use the furniture and into the air around the furniture, resulting in American babies being born with HUGE levels of these chemicals compared to babies born in any other country on earth. It also showed how the "lessons" learned by big tobacco's 50 years of successfully suppressing science has been replicated repeatedly across many industries. If there is a hell, this film highlights several folks who should end up there.

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.

Kenner tells us that big oil is using the same tactics – and often the same personnel – as big tobacco: set up any number of supposedly independent thinktanks, get plausible professionals on the (mouthwatering) payroll, and just sow the seeds of doubt. You undermine conviction, filibuster government action, fog public opinion, get brazen blowhards to shout loudly on Fox News. And the people best at this are the ageing, neocon attack dogs, veterans of the tobacco wars, who in the evening of their lives find a thrilling new purpose in climate change doubt-production.

Merchants of Doubt

Of course, there are scientists on both sides that exaggerate, but everyone knows that climate change is real, and that humans are the main cause. Ice core matches up perfectly with the start of the Industrial Revolution-(hint: that's the big one), as well as other volcanic eruptions that date further back in history; which also caused the climate to change. So that's not even a question anymore. Go back to school if you don't believe me. It's never too late. Take some environmental science courses. That way, you can just argue all your bs to the teacher. And when s/he kicks you out of the class for holding everyone back, you'll still be a hero somewhere in Texas.

Weather is analyzed on a day to day basis. Climate is the study of those patterns over a long period of time. Climate change is probably a better term to use than global warming, only because people can grasp the meaning better. The United States had the hottest summer on record last year. It also had the coldest February, this year, than it has had in the last 80 to 100 years, in most states. Climate change does not mean it's just going to be hot all the time. It means the climate will change more often. We will see severe patterns of weather more frequently.

I like how this documentary ties in the PR aspect. The only reason climate change became a political issue is because of the effects it has on business.

Merchants of Doubt