Coming to our classroom in a timely manner after talking of
the congressmen who refused to be in session for the Pope’s speech last week
due to his environmental beliefs, Merchants of Doubt proved to be an excellent
depiction of the climate skepticism in today’s world. The film never failed to
drive the point home that climate change denialism is quite ridiculous and not
only is the denying absurd, the facts are irrelevant to these people.
The film
began with a nice, analogous segway into climate change with the discussion of
smoking. It did a great job of drawing ties between the two topics. Dozens of
shots are shown of bigwig tobacco persons denying the harmful effects of the
product. A product whose use directly self-harms the user and others around
them… hmm, almost too perfect. Kind of reminds us of climate deniers,
especially oil company representatives, attempting to convince the public of
this fallacy that fossil fuel use isn’t harmful to our planet, doesn’t it? Merchants of Doubt furthered this
argument early on when they showed the shift in blame for smoking’s disastrous
fiery effects from the cigarette to the furniture that surrounds it. The flame
retardant portion perfectly transitions the movie to the topic of climate as it
focuses on how deniers are eager to put the blame on other factors. It also
gives a great example of how fake “grassroots” front-groups can heavily
influence an audience when multiple appeals are made by a man in the film –one
who is funded secretly by chemical agencies- claiming to have witnessed
children burning to death because of the absence of fire retardants.
Merchants of Doubt then moves on to
profile two men who previously denied anthropogenic climate change but now see
the light. This to me is quite a bold tactic, and a seemingly convincing one at
that. Unfortunately this is not the case as we see the poor writer of The Skeptic torn apart (with lack of
fact) in a lecture, and when we notice Rep. Bob Inglis’ ratings dramatically
decrease when he advocates for preventative climate change measures. Then
without transition the film switches to lobby groups that are in full denial
and Mr. Marc Morano. Here is where the film drives home its point well. After
learning all about the science and the lack of convincing others on the issue,
we get to see the other side. Quite frankly, the film doesn’t let you leave
without feeling enraged first. We see Morano admit to his lack of knowledge and
yet we are forced to watch his cringe worthy attacks on the sensible believers.
Although it tries to end on a sense of optimism after this, its best point is
that as people founded in scientific fact, we should be upset. These “Merchants
of Doubt” are prolonging doubt on the subject that should not be in existence.
Smoking took fifty years to hold a different outlook in people’s minds, it’s
just too bad climate change doesn’t have that long.
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