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Why This Book Matters:

Merchants of Doubt is a gut-wrenching and mind-opening narrative on how some of the most well-known scientists have distorted the public’s opinion on crucial environmental, nuclear, and smoking issues, all for the benefit of corporate and industrial entities.

The Big Takeaways:

  1. The Tobacco industry employed PR firms and scientists to counter studies against smoking.
    1. If Top tobacco firms in the US hired well-known scientist and PR firms to distort dirty secrets of their product
  2. The Tobacco firms tried to cast doubts on the harms of passive smoking.
    1. By the 1980s, evidence emerged about the harmful effects of passive smoking as well. Tobacco firms in the US this time went one step ahead; they questioned the science itself.
  3. The threat of a Nuclear war was prolonged with the help of scientists who helped squash peace initiatives.
    1. When President Nixon tried to implement the Détente policy during the Cold War, a handful of scientists intentionally jeopardized the initiative by feeding public hysteria of a Soviet threat.
  4. The global scientific community is still battling the global warming deniers in their community.
    1. The corporate sector and their employed scientists were actively denying the existence of global warming.
  5. A well-crafted political stunt tried to devalue harms of DDT, an insecticide, and cast doubt on environmental regulations
    1. When an honest scientist presented the dangers of DDT, she was vilified for spreading baseless paranoia, while chemical makers cast doubts on environmental regulations.

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