From George Mason University, Center for Climate Communications:
The Center for Climate Change Communication (4C) at George Mason University believes that excellence deserves acknowledgment. Since 2009, each year 4C conducts an open nomination and democratic voting process to select one person, and one organization, as Climate Change Communicators of the Year. Eight extraordinary individuals and six extraordinary organizations were nominated this year. After a six-week voting process, with thousands of votes cast, Naomi Oreskesand the Alliance for Climate Education emerged as this year’s winners.
Dr. Oreskes is the author of one of the top science books of the year, Merchants of Doubt.
She shows how a tiny group of ideological cold warriors, funded by the a secretive group of twisted, super-rich far-right fanatics, have distorted science from tobacco, to acid rain, to climate change, right up to the present day, in an attempt to bend reality to a kind of Ayn Randian fantasy world.
If you have time for only one book on climate change this year, this is the one.
Moreover, if you are interested in the broader topic of how information gets buried, distorted, perverted, packaged and spun in the modern media culture, this is the one as well.
For Dr. Oreskes long-form presentation, see below.
There is considerable irony about Naomi Oreskes being awarded this by George Mason University. Because of GMU’s apparently endlessly stalled investigation into their very own Edward Wegman – author of the discredited Wegman Report – accused of plagiarism and falsification.
For those who want to know more about the denial industry, and Wegman see the following:
The Machinery of Climate Anti-Science by John Mashey
http://www.pics.uvic.ca/assets/pdf/seminars/Mashey_Apr2011.pdf
Strange Scholarship in the Wegman Report
A Façade for the Climate Anti-Science PR Campaign
John R. Mashey*
09/26/10, V1.
Executive Summary
http://deepclimate.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/strange-scholarship-v1-02-exec.pdf
Full Report
http://deepclimate.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/strange-scholarship-v1-02.pdf
Crescendo to Climategate Cacophony
Behind the 2006 Wegman Report and Two Decades of Climate Anti-Science
John R. Mashey*
http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/crescendo%20climategate%20cacophony%20v1%200.pdf
Strange Inquiries at George Mason University John R. Mashey SIGMU V1.0 12/13/10
John R. Mashey
V1.0 12/13/10
http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/strange%20inquiries%20v1%200.pdf
Strange Inquiries at George Mason University …and even stranger comments John R. Mashey SIGMU2 V2.0 01/04/11
http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/strange%20inquiries%20v2%200.pdf
Another Attack on Consensus – Monckton/Schulte/Ferguson/Morano/Asher vs Oreskes & Consensus
ANOTHER ATTACK ON GLOBAL WARMING’S SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS
A Case Study of Personal Harassment and Amplification of Nonsense by the Denialist PR Machine John R. Mashey
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/environmental_law/files/monckton.schulte.oreskes.6.1.pdf
http://www.zerocarbonnow.org/wordpress//uploads/monckton_schulte_oreskes1.pdf
Plagiarism? Conspiracies? Felonies? Pv.1.0 02/08/10
Behind the Wegman Report and Decades of Related Anti-Science Attacks
John R. Mashey JohnMashey (At) yahoo.com February 8, 2010
http://www.desmogblog.com/plagiarism-conspiracies-felonies-breaking-out-wegman-file
http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/plagiarism.conspiracies.felonies.v1.0.pdf
Plagiarism? Conspiracies? Felonies? V.1.0.1 02/11/10
Behind the Wegman Report and Decades of Related Anti-Science Attacks
John R. Mashey JohnMashey (At) yahoo.com February 11, 2010
http://www.desmogblog.com/plagiarism-conspiracies-felonies-breaking-out-wegman-file
http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/plagiarism%20conspiracies%20felonies%20v1%200%201.pdf
Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco’s Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warming/exxon_report.pdf
Koch Industries Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/usa/press-center/reports4/koch-industries-secretly-fund.pdf
I highly recommend this book. Although it was an easy read, it was damning in its indictment of big business employing so called “think-tanks” to deny everything which hurts their profit. Not only did these groups deny climate change, they also denied the dangers of: smoking tobacco, second hand smoke, acid rain, CFCs, DDT, etc. What is worse is that money paid to these organizations was tax deductible!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Institute
I now will not trust “anything” written by “anyone” (including scientists) who have ever written for a so-called “think tank”. Roy Spencer has shot his own scientific reputation in the foot by being on the board of directors of the Marshal Institute (an organization whose web site still serves up “tobacco smoke” denial)
If you go to their site now ( http://www.marshall.org/ ) and use their search tool to locate the phrase “tobacco” you will only get two hits. But if you drop the following phrase (without the double quotes) into a Google search box, you will get a lot more (maybe even more than the webmaster running “www.marshall.org” knows about)
“site:http://www.marshall.org/ tobacco”
Good choice for this award
“Merchants of Doubt”
Read it.
Good job Dr. Oreskes and Conway on Merchants of Doubt! Hurray for Climate Science Communicator of the Year! I haven’t finished it yet, but the book is obviously of great quality. It sheds light on a group of people that would much rather have been left to retire in the shadows. This book is a triumph for climate science that doesn’t pull any punches. At the same time, though, it is even-toned, fact-finding research with great references throughout.
I am going to encourage the folks that I know to borrow my copy. We all have an obligation to encourage others within our circle to learn about climate science, and subsequently they ought to encourage their circle as well.