- FAMRI Center
Seminars are in Room 366 Library unless otherwise noted.
Cigarettes, Climate and Confusion Creators
John Mashey, PhD
Computer Scientist, Emeritus with Bell Labs, Silicon Valley
Corporate Executive and Trustee of the Computer History Museum
Jul 11 2012 - 12:00pm
The evidence for human-caused climate change is as strong as that for cigarettes as causes of disease. Nevertheless, there is much confusion among the public about the evidence and the state of the science. It is becoming increasingly clear that the tobacco industry created effective organizations and tactics for confusing people about science, in some cases training those who have attacked science about acid rain, ozone hole, mercury pollution, climate change, etc. This talk highlights some of the weirdly-close connections between tobacco and climate change, discussions of people and thinktanks that promote anti-science in both, and observations about the sociology, psychology, funding and politics of all this. There are many similarities and a few differences. The Legacy Tobacco Documents Library has been absolutely invaluable in my most recent investigations, and John will give some examples of things he found.