Naomi Oreskes and the Merchants of Doubt

Sorry, this event’s been and gone

When:

Sat 14 May ’11, 1:00pm–2:00pm

Where: ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, 50 Mayoral Drive, Auckland CBD Show map

Restrictions: All Ages

Ticket Information:

Festival Club: $16.00
Early bird: $20.00
Standard: $25.00
Student : $12.50
Booking fees may apply

Website:

Auckland Writers and Readers Festival

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The Michael King Memorial Lecture. “Doubt is our product,” ran the infamous memo written by one tobacco industry executive in 1969, “since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the minds of the general public.”There’s no denying “doubt” is crucial to science and drives it forward, but it also makes science, and scientists, vulnerable to misrepresentation.

Naomi Oreskes co-wrote Merchants of Doubt with Erik Conway: an important and absorbing history of a group of high-level US scientists and advisers with deep connections in politics and industry. The same individuals surface repeatedly: claiming that the science of global warming is "not settled", denying the truth of studies linking smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain, and CFCs to the ozone hole. We are honoured to have Naomi Oreskes give the Michael King Memorial Lecture, with an introduction by the Science Editor of the New York Times, Barbara Strauch.