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Reviews
Merchants of Doubt (2014)
Real intention is to close down rational debate
The film is standard boilerplate smear as outlined in previous reviews. What I'd like to add is that the film's director emailed me with the following:
> > Dear Roger, > > People who mislead the public on climate change should not be on TV. Period. > > That's one big reason why I produced Merchants of Doubt, a film that lays > bare the greedy, shameful world of climate denial and the journalists who > broadcast it. That's also why, right now, we're launching a people-powered > national campaign that could keep climate deniers out of the news for good. > > Merchants of Doubt premieres in U.S. theaters today, and it will invite > thousands of energized viewers to sign this petition and join our campaign. > Let's lead the charge! > > Join me to tell TV network and cable news directors: Stop booking "merchants > of doubt" on your programs immediately.
My response was as follows. Needless to say, I didn't get a reply.
Dear Robert,
Surely the best way to defeat a bad scientific argument is to engage with it and show how it is in error. Denying people free speech in the media only fuels the flames. There seem to be remarkably few scientists from the warm side of the debate willing to engage with prominent skeptics. Bring it on, I'm happy to discuss the physics of the enhanced greenhouse effect with anyone you care to put up. The problem for them is that the Stefan Boltzmann equation which was employed by goody and Young in 1964 only applies to vacuum's at absolute zero. i.e. space. Applying it to the troposphere is a fundamental error. That error has been repeated ever since in every climate model. That's why they are so far in error.
Cordially Rog Tallbloke BA (hons) Hist/Phil Science.
I'll just add that we should ask whether "People who mislead the public on climate change should not be on TV" includes people who exaggerate the extent of climate change and its effects, and whether, if this less one-sided blacklist turned out to include himself and the author of the book the film is based on, Naomi Oreskes, he would happily sell his video camera.