A documentary about climate change deniers may seem like it’s preaching to the choir. Wherever you stand on the issue, you’re probably inured to any opposing arguments. That’s part of of the problem, and Merchants of Doubt illustrates how deniers have manipulated the scientific debate, and why the climate change scientists have succumbed to them. A wise man once said “knowing is half the battle.” I think they made a movie about him too. So knowing how this has been perpetrated can be a valuable step in educating the public to see through the lies.
Merchants of Doubt puts climate change denial in strong context, comparing its tactics to the tobacco industry. We all agree it was wrong to say cigarettes were healthy, let alone that they don’t cause cancer. Now that we’ve all learned they were selling something hazardous, we can objectively understand the tactics. Hint: If Morton Downey, Jr. claims he smokes four packs a day and he’s fine, don’t be like Morton Downey, Jr.
I was less aware of a similar crusade regarding flame retardant chemicals in furniture that also benefited the tobacco industry. Since still-lit cigarettes were causing home fires, tobacco didn’t want to be pressured to change the chemical constitution of their product, so they blamed flammable furniture. Now we all have sofas filled with poisonous flame retardants so that when we leave our lit cigarettes they won’t catch.
Fire protection may seem like a good thing anyway, but the chemicals have been shown to be ineffective at fire protection, and harmful in their own right. The biggest shock is that the flame retardant lobby hired a doctor to testify on many occasions about the need for flame retardants. He told three different stories about babies burning to death when candles fell in their non-retardant cribs. Who the fuck puts a candle in a baby’s crib? This led to some excellent investigative journalism that confirmed all three stories were fraudulent.
Merchants of Doubt shows us that climate change deniers have the same incentives (oil, chemicals, coal, etc.) and tactics for keeping scientists and legislators too tied up in something else to address the real issue. An anti-global warming study claiming 31,000 scientists refuted climate change was audacious enough to list blatantly fake names among the 31K. I mean, did they think no one would check the names? They included Michael J. Fox and Geri Halliwell!
Fake experts earn a very good living as talking heads for cable news debate shows. Marc Morano seems to be the most aggressive, bullying the scientists he debates so that he “wins.” Hey, if a nerd in a suit can’t trade barbs, surely climate change isn’t real. And there is science’s weakness. Scientists, by their own admission in the film, are not media savvy. They may even be anti-social, but we can forgive people who can’t come out of their shell.
The premise is that Morano is the fun one, the party boy who gets all the good college kids to stop all their boring studying. I don’t think yelling is fun though. Morano is proud of himself for putting scientists’ personal e-mail addresses online so his followers can send them threatening, abusive messages. He even admits he’s only trying to make the pro-climate change side miserable. “We’re the negative force,” he says, “trying to stop stuff.” So there you have it: not contributing anything good, just trying to take away other people’s efforts. Now sure, some bad ideas have to be stopped, but Morano is less about ideology than just being a troublemaker.
Director Robert Kenner crafts a compelling presentation for Merchants of Doubt. The graphics, archival footage and energetic speakers are strong on both sides. An effective thread compares climate change denial, pro-tobacco and the fire retardant issue to a magic trick or con. The film manages to uncover some mystery too, although that may have already been uncovered in the Naomi Oreske and Eric Conway book, and Kenner featured those discoveries in the film.
Merchants of Doubt is still a film more about what already happened than what we can do in the future. Again, awareness itself may be the solution. They’re going to keep using these tactics to avoid any issue. Don’t be fooled.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
