Is climate change real? In Robert Kenner’s, Merchants of Doubt, he takes viewers of his movie on a journey to understand people hired to cast a doubt upon climate change and toxic chemicals. Kenner provides several examples of how casting a doubt through media and political organizations can create disbelief upon facts and scientific evidence. He provides evidence of how smoking and climate change have both undergone enormous scrutiny of not causing harm to both people and the environment through “political spin.” Political spin is defined by Britannica dictionary online as “the attempt to control or influence communication in order to deliver one's preferred message.” If we learn from the lessons of smoking, we can come to understand the …show more content…
Kenner outlines smoking as his first example, where these merchants create an elusion for people to believe tobacco does not harm your body. Stan Glantz, a hospital administrator became involved in the smoking debate. He stated, “people were smoking everywhere in hospitals, airplanes, and restaurants.” Glantz states, “one day he received a box of a 1000 page document that had been copied from the files of a well known tobacco company, in all 80 million pages of documents were collected. The results of the documents showed that tobacco companies knew in the 1950’s smoking causes cancer, in the 1960s it causes heart disease and nicotine is an addictive drug. However, Tobacco companies testified in front of the US Congress in 1994, that nicotine was not addictive or caused health concerns.” This was the beginning stages of political spin with tobacco companies not disclosing information that was harmful to the American people to maintain corporate interests and …show more content…
“Many people began to equate global warming advocates to communists, socialists and a threat to free enterprise. Also, many people feared government regulation and a change to their way of life.” In Merchants of Doubt, “Fred Singer and Fred Seitz both Physicist came out as big proponents that global warming is not real. Seitz worked for the Tobacco industry and blamed the smokers for smoking, so he had experience in discrediting truth. Fred Singer, also went as far as to state, Global warming is manmade.” Again, an example of discrediting the truth with the backing of corporations and political organizations with perceived experts in the field or area is a common approach and prevalent today.
Furthermore, Kenner, found that many groups who pose as groups representing interest of citizens actually represented the interest of big corporations. “George C. Marshall Institute is a Think Tank that lobbies to oppose climate change. Many organizations are funded by the Koch Brothers and oil companies such as Exxon Mobil. Many of the people who come from the Think Tanks are titled experts and don’t have the proper credentials to even be credible to speak out against climate change.” They use advertising, social media and lobbying to create misconception of what is really happening with climate change.
Many people’s opinions are influenced by political leaders and their beliefs, which can have a negative effect on science’s efforts. Mere word changes have shown to make a difference in people’s willingness to pay for taxes that they don’t necessarily support or are even aware of. The use of storytelling has shown to be a powerful means in communicating science to the public as well. Although education and science understanding are not directly correlated with the acceptance of climate science, there is evidence that shows that a brief explanation of greenhouse effects “enhance acceptance across the political spectrum”. Researching source credibility has also boosted the political acceptance of certain scientific information.
They use facts and logic to provide evidence of climate change being a process of Earth and not of man. For example, Eric Bolling states:
Stevenson, T., and R. N. Proctor. "The SECRET and SOUL of Marlboro: Phillip Morris and the Origins, Spread, and Denial of Nicotine Freebasing. " American Journal of Public Health 98.7 (2008): 1184-194. Print.
To address the statement that selling cigarettes is unethical due to the danger associated with it, one must determine what separates this manufactured good from other harmful products. It is true that tobacco is a dangerous drug and can do damage to a person; how...
They say there is no evidence and no real scientific organizations accept it. People think environmental organizations are falsifying and exaggerating information about the climate. The majority of those contradicting climate change have never been apart of any actual research and only get their information from those who profit off the things destroying the environment. Some corporations who publicly deny global warming include the American Enterprise Institute, Americans for Prosperity, American Legislative Exchange Council, Beacon Hills Institute, Cato Institute, and many others. Each of the organizations listed are being privately funded by either Koch foundations or Exxonmobil, if not both (Source 12).
Smoking cigarettes is a detrimental practice not only to the smoker, but also to everyone around the smoker. According to an article from the American Lung Association, “Health Effects” (n.d.), “Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., causing over 438,000 deaths per year”. The umbrella term for tobacco use includes the use of cigarettes, cigars, e-cigs and chewing tobacco. While tobacco causes adverse health consequences, it also has been a unifying factor for change in public health. While the tobacco industries targets specific populations, public health specifically targets smokers, possible smokers, and the public to influence cessation, policies and education.
Smoking is a lifestyle, a habit, and a trend. Smoking has become a social activity among teens, connecting them through the craving of a smoke. Smoking is seen as seductive and cool in the media and movies which influences teenagers to smoke even more. The World Health Organization has stated that “Tobacco kills around 6 million people each year. More than 5 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600,000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.” As of April 2016, only 7% of teenagers in the U.S. smoke, but it is said that tobacco use will kill 8 million people annually by 2030. 99% of adult smokers start in their years as teenagers. Smoking is an epidemic that has taken control of people’s lives since 1881 and the media since the early 1900s. Smoking currently kills about 440,000 people a year in the U.S. I feel that it is an issue because it is the #1 most preventable way to die, but people still continue to smoke because of how it looks and how they are perceived as a person if they do. The fact that people become addicted to a trend that will attribute to their death for the sake of being thought of as cooler, is a problem that needs to be addressed.
Every year cigarette smoking is responsible for 500,000 premature deaths (Nugel), you do not want to be just another statistic, do you? America’s first cash crop was tobacco. That means that tobacco has been around for a really long time. It was not until 1865, though, that cigarettes were sold commercially. They were sold to soldiers at the end of the Civil War (Dowshen). From then, cigarettes spread like wildfire, and it was not until 1964 that anyone made a stand about the negative effects of tobacco and cigarettes. People start smoking for all different reasons, some to fit in and some to “escape”. Regardless, it is a horrible habit. 3900 children will try their first cigarette today. Amongst adults who currently smoke, 68% of them began at age 18 or younger, and 85% at 21 or younger (American Lung Association). And of all those people, 70% say if they were given another chance they would never have picked up that first cigarette (Tobacco Free Maine). Smoking is responsible for 1 and 5 deaths in the united states, and is the number one preventable cause of death (NLH). Smoking burns and there is no doubt about that, but before one picks up that cigarette, understand the negative effects on not only oneself, but others affected by ones poor choices, like second-hand smoke. Because of smoking cigarettes, many types of cancer, decrease of life quality, and negative health effects have become all too common in the world today.
This illustrates the power of pseudoscience because politicians can not possibly debate how to address climate change when a significant portion of our country does not believe it exists (17). Despite the extensive reports on the risks of climate change from many different scientists, government agencies, and non profits, many politicians adamantly deny climate change. Even when legitimate science, like the Keeling Curve which illustrates the yearly change in atmospheric carbon or the Stern Review which explains the significant economic impacts of a changing climate, is introduced into the political controversy, pseudoscience dramatically reduces its impact (17). These scientific reports are not very effective because of politicians like Representative Bucshon who claims that “the data does not support the premise that carbon dioxide emissions are playing a significant role in the world temperature variations”. This statement is simply incorrect; however, it is works because this controversy has become more about political orientation that actual science.
The sale of cigarettes and tobacco is a multi-billion dollar industry, but is it truly worth all the problems that stem from their use? Health care costs are extremely high due to all the health problems associated with cigarettes and tobacco. Even though research has proven time and time again the harmful effects of cigarettes, and the rising cost of health care caused by cigarettes, our government will not take a stand and stop all manufacturing of the horrible toxins. Every year, new medical reports are issued regarding the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world die every year from diseases caused by smoking.
Many people dedicate their lives to spread the message about climate change being real. Even though some change in the climate is natural, many events that have happened cannot be explained away by nature. Climate change is causing damage to the world that is completely irreversible. Nasa says, “Most scientists say it 's very likely that most of the warming since the mid-1900s is due to the burning of coal, oil and gas. Burning these fuels is how we produce most of the energy that we use every day” (nasa). The energy that we use daily makes our life easier, but it hurts the earth. Why does the government still allow us to use these things? Science has shown us that sea levels are rising in many parts of the world. Warm weather is causing glaciers to melt which results in the sea level rising. Earth 's average temperature has been rising for the last century in a half; and there has also been a steady rise in ocean temperature since 1969. It is said that climate control is man made and it is dangerous. On the other side of the argument, many people do not believe that climate change is real. They argue that their has not been a big temperature change in almost two decades. They also bring up the point of there not being enough data in the climate history to draw the conclusion of what is happening in the climate now is abnormal. Scientist started to record climate change around the 1800’s which many people believe is not enough data to do a comparison. Another reason some believe that climate change is not real is because of some instances where a scientist predicts a date of a significant climate change never happens. Rinkesh writes, “ For example:- Al Gore predicted that all Arctic ice would be gone by 2013. But, on contrary Arctic ice is up by 50% since 2012” (conserve-energy-future). Many people find that these reasons are why climate change is not
charged with covering up the addictive properties of nicotine and finding ways to exploit it to increase profits. For example, in Wigand’s interview for 60 Minutes, he says that tobacco companies view cigarettes only as a delivery device for nicotine. He also says they take advantage of the addictive properties by manipulating and adj...
There are still some believers that support that climate change is not real and that they are just made up facts so people can grab the opportunity to make money with new products that will help the world to become “cleaner.” Their arguments are that the earth always had these types of climate changes just like a natural cycle. When asked about if there is any link on how in the past decades, when humans started using fossil fuels and the changes became worst and worst, they come with a response that it is just a
Smoking is a simple process of inhaling and exhaling the fumes of burning tobacco, but it has deadly consequences. According to the American Cancer Society, smoking is the most preventable cause of death in America today (Encarta, 2002). Until the 1940?s, smoking was considered harmless. It was at this time that epidemiologists noticed a dramatic increase in the cases of lung cancer. A study was then conducted between smokers and nonsmokers to determine if cigarettes were the cause of this increase. This study, conducted by the American Cancer Society, found increased mortality among smokers. Yet it was not until 1964 that the Surgeon General put out a report acknowledging the danger of cigarettes. The first action to curb smoking was the mandate of a warning on cigarette packages by the Federal Trade Commission (Encarta, 2002). In 1971, all cigarette advertising was banned from radio and television, and cities and states passed laws requiring nonsmoking sections in public places and workplaces (Encarta, 2002). Now in some cities smoking is being completely banned from public places and workplaces and various people are striving for more of these laws against smoking.
Subpoint A: Not long ago, a documentary film called “An Inconvenient truth” came out in 2006. This film raised international public awareness of climate change and reenergizing the environmental movement. A former U.S Vice president Al Gore campaigned to educate citizens about global warming through a simp...