ENGLISH 23
(A.K.A. CLIMATE CRISIS 101)
Deep Dive
Merchants Of Doubt
[J]ust because the United States has the money and political infrastructure to deal with the consequences of our greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t mean the rest of the developing world does. Just as Ken mentioned in his lecture, the poorest three billion people on our planet only contribute five percent to the climate crisis, yet they’re the ones who are paying the majority of the costs. People in developing countries don’t have the money or resources to deal with the damage that the western world has caused. Instead, entire villages are dying and US politicians still manage to say that the climate crisis is no big deal. Watching this film about climate change skeptics made me realize how easy it is to brainwash the American people. Despite the fact that 97% of scientists agree that we need to actively participate in ending fossil fuel emissions, politicians can still convince the public that this is false. The fossil fuel industry is a major part of the US economy but, a shift in our economy is necessary if we want to save the only planet we’ve ever known. It made me upset when the politicians in this film were exaggerating the effects the fossil fuel industry has on our country. By switching to renewable energy sources, the United States will create more jobs and opportunities for people to work. More importantly, the switch to renewable energy needs to happen now.
It is baffling to me how easily the global climate crisis was turned into a political debate. How can so many people care more about money and success than the future of their planet? How will they be able to live with themselves when they realize they sacrificed the only home we’ve ever known all for their own gain?
[T]he part of the film that I found hardest to watch was the interview with Marc Morano. Hearing him talk about how much he enjoys sending personal attacks to climate scientists was very disturbing. Many of the climate change deniers have said that their intention is to protect the people from government interference, but hearing Morano’s mean spirited remarks makes it very clear that they are not interested in helping anyone but themselves. On the other hand, one part of the film that gave me hope for the fight against climate change denial was hearing Bob Inglis talk about how he changed his mind about climate change after witnessing its consequences first hand. It’s nice to see that even people who once held firm beliefs of denial can be educated and change their minds. Examples like that one give me hope that people can realize the truth, however I worry that it will take too long before enough people change their minds for it to make a difference.
Although there were many quotes that resonated with me throughout the film, one in particular sent chills down my spine, “doubt is our product”. It sickens me that there are mega million corporations out that that have lied about their harmful product or production for monetary gain. I am not made like that, I couldn’t dream to be. How could half of America allow themselves to be fooled by industries that just want to fill their pockets even more?
This film was painful to watch. It brought about the same type of anger I feel when Trump supporters talk (which I’m sure there’s a large overlap between the two). One of the climate deniers (I’m blanking on his name [Myron Ebell]) was asked around “what if you’re wrong?” His answer was “then I’ll have to say I’m sorry.” This really frustrates me for a number of reasons. First, just in the 8 years since this has been made, we have experienced major climate disasters and are seeing the effects of the climate crisis. So he should be apologizing now but I’m sure he, and many others, are still denying anthropogenic climate change. Second, it is infuriating seeing a wealthy old man say that he’ll apologize if he’s wrong when it reality he’s gotten to live his life, he’s not going to feel the effects the way poor communities are, the way younger generations are. It feels like a scapegoat for him. It feels like he’s very aware of the fact that if he is wrong, he’ll be dead by that time so he will never have to take responsibility for the way he and others push progress back.
I have the same feeling as you do after watching this week’s film Climate of Doubt. I feel angry, confused, and frustrated as I see people denying the climate crisis.
I grew up in China, a country that has begun to pay more attention to climate issues in recent years. Most Chinese students have developed the awareness of protecting the environment. If you ask a young girl on the street if she believes in the climate crisis, the answer is very likely to be “yes.” When I entered high school, my geography teacher even spent a whole period teaching us the seriousness of global warming. I still remember he showed us a clip that the iceberg is melting, and animals such as polar bears lost their habitats.
What struck me most in “Merchants of Doubt” was climate change deniers’ reliance on sowing haphazard, often contradictory doubts and general discord. Such a pervasive lack of consensus would be a weakness in any other movement, but it is exactly what makes climate change denial so infectious and insidious. As former climate skeptics like Rep. Inglis demonstrated in their ill-fated efforts to spread the truth, trying to stop climate change denial is like trying to put a lid on a thousand schoolyard rumors at once. All it takes is one mention of “sunspots” or “more than 31,000 scientists” or “a candle in a crib” on the news for millions to keep parroting it for years to come. What good is a peer-reviewed study against a self-perpetuating wall of bite-sized falsehoods? Disturbingly, “Merchants of Doubt” demonstrates to us that when it comes to quelling climate change denial, the truth is not enough.
After watching this film, it seemed to me that it’s rather unlikely that we will be able to educate anyone who is already a denier of climate change due to the fact that these companies have so much wealth and so much power that they can afford to keep fueling the spread of disinformation to the public. The only way that I could possibly see change happening in the future would be to implement some form of policy change that completely bans things like fracking or a carbon tax that would directly force people to make ecofriendly decisions based on their own carbon emissions.
It was unnerving to see how the cigarette companies had recorded proof that they knew their products were killing people and blatantly admitted guilt to each other, yet the pull of a profit was still more valuable to them than the lives of human beings. I was also surprised by the effect that it had on other big companies in order to persuade purchasers that cigarettes are not the problem. They convinced people to fill couches with dangerous chemicals, basically poisoning them, in order to take any action towards making their products “safer”. I simply do not understand how executives and spokespeople are content with themselves when all they do is mislead people and endanger them.
This is a great point you make about certain officials trying to confuse the public about the COVID 19 pandemic much like they do in the movie Merchants of Doubt about climate change. They do this for economic gain much like big oil does to cause confusion with climate change. It is sad that these companies and corporations are so greedy that they care more about their wealth than public health but that is the reality of our world today. History is repeating itself as this is the same story that we had with the tobacco industry and will continue to do so with the COVID pandemic and climate crisis until we change something to stop it. Sadly, I’m not sure we can stop the corporations now with all the money and power they currently have.
While I was always aware that the topic of climate change and the climate crisis was political, I was also unaware of the extent to which politics affected the issue. For the most part I was under the belief that climate change skepticism was relatively rare, and was only such a big issue because a minority of people (being policymakers/members of congress, and lobbyists) held a large amount of power. While this is true to an extent, I was completely unaware of the sheer amount of people who are in the dark about the issue of climate change