Merchants of Doubt

What a fantastic week of class with guest professor Jean Lavigne! For class this week we read and learned about climate deniers in general as well as simply why they still deny climate change despite about forty years of climate change research. The article, “The Science of Why We Don’t Believe in Science”, was extremely insightful. It made clear to me so much about human psychology and thinking that I feel like I’ve questioned numerous times before, yet could never prove it given I’m not a certified psychologist/ scientist. Basically what it said was that people tend to stick to emotional even when scientific study almost certainly argues against our points. This is due to the fact that we are indeed humans. Realizing this though can seem pessimistic and uninspiring, though, as we know people won’t even change when presented with scientific data. Especially in America, people take advantage of this as well as our susceptibility to doubtfulness. This topic was covered very well in the movie, The Merchants of Doubt, as the film brilliantly discussed how politicians, the media, and denial businessman have manipulated people against science in an assortment of ways over the years and are still doing it today with climate change. The are just so many things that I want to talk about from this movie, but would need an extraordinarily large essay to explain everything on my mind. With that said, I highly recommend to all reading this to watch The Merchants of Doubt because it highlights how you are being lied to in this country and taken advantage of for prideful and selfish ends. One part I do really want to point out is the comparison the film made to the tobacco companies. Scientists and the Tobacco companies knew that their product was harmful yet they continued to manipulate the public and politicians only until recently. If it took this long to finally take serious action against tobacco companies, it most likely will be too late in regard to climate change since the negative effects have already begun. THIS SHOULD SCARE YOU.

From my understanding of the film and these readings, I think it’s best to convince these people as the article suggests by leading with values. It seems this may be the only way to convince people since they refuse they immediately argue against as humans normally do when confronted. This immersing approach I think will greatly quicken the change of mind we’re hoping for. Different ways to do this include: targeting individual responsibly, providing market solutions, pointing out green energy is the way of the future, and using language that blends with the local persons. My favorite of these is the method of convincing people by pointing out the benefits to growing green energy business. The irony here is that I  am suggesting the same ideal as many deniers. The only difference is investing in green energy not unsustainable energy. The point is to ask the question, “Why do we keep investing in fossil fuels when we know green energy is the way of the future?” Another question would be, “It seems like other countries wants to take it to the next level while we are still stuck in the pre-historic age (and yes that is funny because of what fossil fuels are)?” After posing questions like these, we must further point out that China and other countries are beating us in “future” technology and we could probably become a leader if we stopped sticking to fossil fuels and worked on sustainability and green energy.