Posts by Paul Basken

June 9, 2010, 04:09 PM ET

Deadly Conspiracies, Fueled by Reputations and Doubts

By Paul Basken

After enduring decades of inexplicably persistent news reports casting doubt on the fact that cigarettes cause lung cancer, pollution harms the planet, and nuclear weapons are extremely dangerous, one might be forgiven for wondering if the same mob of misguided mercenaries might be behind them all.

As it turns out—according to the evidence assembled in Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, just published this month by Bloomsbury Press—they are.

Much the way meteorologists can now demonstrate the clear correlation between increasing carbon emissions and rising global temperatures, the book's authors—Naomi Oreskes, a professor of history and science studies at the University of California at San Diego, and Erik M. Conway, a historian at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena—show the links between a small...