Discussion Board

Merchants of Doubt

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Merchants of Doubt

Part 1

a) One of the key things that has been highlighted during the premises of the document is that how the climate change deniers tend to play an important part in the legislation process. The effort that is being made on their part is that they carry out the legislation that do not help the climate cause. The first thing that they do is that how they were using flame retardants so that they are able to protect their sales. The other thing that they do was cultivation of the scientists that nullified the concerns regarding the environment.

b) One of the first unethical practice that was done by these people was that they made sure that the legislation was done at such a slow pace that the impact of the climate proliferation could not be achieved. The other thing that was done was that they maneuverer the scientific community and general populace into believing that how all the hue and cry regarding the environment is not something that is important. As its second example, the film describes how manufacturers of flame retardants worked to protect their sales after toxic effects of the retardants were reported in the scientific literature. The central concern of the film is the ongoing use of these tactics to forestall governmental action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in response to the risk of global climate change.

Part 2

a) During the premises of the movie, Oregon Petition is defined as the deliberate attempt that has been carried out by the United States regarding how it is going to make be made sure that whatever the legislation that is being presented with regards to the climate change is going to be brought down and effect of the positive climate change controls are going to be deduced.

b) The climate gate effect was the series of the messages and e-mails that were subsequently leaked that showed that how the greater scepticism that is being witnessed from the scientific community with regards to the environmental pollution is going to be brought down. One of the ways through which it was going to be done was to make sure that all the efforts that are going to be done with regards to bringing control to the environment are going to be halted and even policy changes are going to be discouraged in terms of the climate change.

Part 3

a) The first person who changed his views with regards to the damage that such initiatives are going to be having towards the environment and went towards the radical change in the mindset was Michael Shermer. He was the publisher of the magazine Sceptic and despite the fact that he had contrarian tendencies with regards to the way climate change was going to be managed, he later on became a strong advocate of the efforts that are undertaken for better climate control.

b)Bob Inglis was the congressional representative from the South Carolina. He was the one of the few politicians who lost his seat in the primary elections after the announcement was being made by him that how he has changed his views. There was a recognition on his part when it comes to understanding the global climate issues and what are some of the initiatives that are needed to be taken at the level of the government to bring about control.

Part 4

a) NIPCC stands for Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change and one of the reasons that it was being created was to make sure that the politicians and some of the stakeholders at the parliament are able to recognize what are some of the broader policy risks that are faced by the public at the moment in the wake of the climate change. The organization lobbied for the advocation of the climate change (Oreskes & Conway, 2010).

b) William O'Keefe was the CEO of the George C Marshall Institute of the climate change. One of the basic purposes that they tended to serve was to make sure that the governmental regulations are going to be opposed that are related to the climate change (Oreskes & Conway, 2010). One area that they were specifically working towards was how it is going to be made sure that the opposition of the laws and bills is going to be done for the regulation of the greenhouse gas emissions and what is the degree of control that is needed to be achieved in this regard (Oreskes & Conway, 2010). He was initially a "contrarian" regarding regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, but his views changed as the science of climate change advanced.

Part 5

There are many scientists who seems to have studied the concept of the tipping point and one of the key concerns that has been placed by them is what are going to be some of the results if the tipping point is being met in terms of the Greenland Ice Sheet (Oreskes & Conway, 2010). The first thing that is going to happen if something of sorts happen is that there is going to be rise in temperature by at least two or three Celsius, At the same time the other thing that is going to be compounded with the whole phenomena is that there are going to be number of glaciated earthquakes that are going to take place due to which the Glacier movements are going to be happening (Oreskes & Conway, 2010). The interesting concept that has to be understood with regards to this whole issue is that there are going to be broader long term and short-term changes (Oreskes & Conway, 2010).

Part 6

The deal that has been referred to in the movie was about how they aligned with different Russian firms in order to make sure that the exploration of the Shale Oil Reserves is going to be carried out. The idea behind this deal was to make sure that how Exxon is going to be in position to ensure that they would eventually take care of it running out oil reserves (Oreskes & Conway, 2010). The other major thing that has to be kept in mind is that how they made sure that the climate change legislations are going to be carried out in the manner that there is not going to be any impact towards the exploration of the Russian oil shale (Oreskes & Conway, 2010). One of the key reasons for this not happening is due to the fact that how Tillerson was lobbying for them at the legislative level. It is a classic case of how the conflict of interest was convexity disregarded when it comes to making sure that the presential appointments are going to be carried out (Oreskes & Conway, 2010).

Conclusion

One of the reasons that the documentary is so sought after is due to the fact that it is one of the few documentaries that rather than going into the preaching mode, make sure that the shady way through which all such dealings are being carried out is being exposed (Oreskes & Conway, 2010). The other thing that the documentary has done is that it has shed light on the fact that how the people who are advocating about the environmental change are taken out of the system (Oreskes & Conway, 2010).

References

Oreskes, N., & Conway, E. M. (2010). Defeating the merchants of doubt. Nature, 465(7299), 686.

Oreskes, N., & Conway, E. M. (2011). Merchants of doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.