We're often told that if we let industry and market players do what they do best - commerce and trade - that society will be better off because the profit motive corrects market players who do the wrong thing. In the long run inefficiencies are removed, and society is better off if we just let market players run the place. Legislation bad, regulations worse. Market players good, profits even better. The mentality is really that simple.
The reality is quite different, as this clip about Exxon's role in scrubbing the truth makes clear.
For those of you who are actually interested in the topic, and the broader societal issues that we must tackle if we're going to fix things, you might want to take a look at "Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warning" (2011).
Every time I use this book in my Senior Seminar class (the last three years) the response is always encouraging and inspiring. The book might be somewhat of a technical read for some, but it's an excellent introduction to an important topic that goes beyond the current abuse and prostitution of the scientific method that we see going on for financial gain.
Simply put, big commercial interests will not do the right thing if it means losing markets or market share, and if they can create doubt around an issue that science has pretty much settled. This is what leads market players, like Exxon, to doing what they can to create doubt about the truth.
Left alone, what's happening now is going to suffocate the planet in the process.
- Mark
The reality is quite different, as this clip about Exxon's role in scrubbing the truth makes clear.
For those of you who are actually interested in the topic, and the broader societal issues that we must tackle if we're going to fix things, you might want to take a look at "Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warning" (2011).
Simply put, big commercial interests will not do the right thing if it means losing markets or market share, and if they can create doubt around an issue that science has pretty much settled. This is what leads market players, like Exxon, to doing what they can to create doubt about the truth.
Left alone, what's happening now is going to suffocate the planet in the process.
- Mark
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