Merchants Of Doubt

Ever wondered why good science has lost so much traction in public policy, especially in the US? (Though Canada is far from exempt: Consider the Experimental Lakes Area.) Or why so many Americans just won't seem to accept obvious facts about evolution, climate change, even second hand tobacco smoke? For an enlightening, if deeply disturbing, explanation, I recommend Merchants of Doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming. This book, by Prof. Naomi Oreskes and writer Erik Conway, shows "how the ideology of market fundamentalism, aided by a too-compliant media, have skewed public understanding of some of the most critical issues of our era".