I wanted to read Michael Mann and Peter Hotez’s new book, Science Under Siege, but as the paperback hasn’t released yet, I requested it from Sheffield Central Library. Despite all the budget cuts they have faced, I was very pleased to find that they were able to purchase and loan me a copy. What a great service!
The book is an important contribution to the debate about two of the greatest crises our species has ever faced: climate change and worldwide pandemics. It examines how our efforts to tackle these existential threats are hampered by a common threat: ideologically motivated opposition to science.
The book reveals the five main forces threatening science: plutocrats, professionals, petrostates, propagandists and the press. With this knowledge, we can be empowered to promote scientific truths, shine light on the channels of dark money, dismantle the corporations poisoning our planet and possibly avert disaster.
The plutocrats are the obscenely rich individuals who have massive amounts of power. They control our social media, own newspapers and oil companies. They fund and influence political parties, ensuring their policies are not a threat to their power and wealth. Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg and Charles Koch are just some of those mentioned.
Plutocrats have often targeted the science of both climate and pandemics. They have denigrated vaccines and opposed public health measures. Their efforts to derail public health recommendations may have been motivated by their concerns about stay-at-home measures that slowed economies and reduced fossil-fuel consumption. Their objection to climate policies that would free us from our reliance on fossil fuels is obvious.
Professionals, hired by plutocrats and petrostates, create disinformation content which is legitimised by their professional reputations. In the climate arena, they have been financially lured by polluters and plutocrats and weaponised into a force to attack science. In biomedicine, there are professional anti-vaccine activists, some of whom push products that not only don’t work but cause actual harm. They appear on American TV channels like Fox News and run their own podcasts.
One particular example of this in the UK was an article in the medical journal, The Lancet, by Andrew Wakefield, that claimed the Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine could cause Autism. It was eventually retracted by The Lancet editors when the British General Medical Council revealed multiple study biases as well as financial and ethical conflicts. Wakefield was removed from the medical register, but the damage had already been done. Many parents had already been put off the vaccine, and cases of measles increased. New anti-vaccine groups formed, and unqualified individuals were amplified, making increasingly outrageous claims. Peter Hotez, one of the authors of the book, was labelled a public enemy and subjected to wave after wave of harassment, threats, and even stalking. Many of those attacking him turned out to be pushing their own dubious autism cures, some of which were lethal.
Petrostates are countries whose economy relies on the fossil fuel industry. The USA would not normally be considered a petrosate as its economy is diversified, but its fossil-fuel-driven policy agenda and the promotion of climate denial mean it behaves like one. Trump’s recent piracy of oil tankers and kidnapping of the Venezuelan President make the USA a petrostate. His desire for Greenland is all about the minerals he wants to mine there.
Major petrostates include Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Venezuela, Cameroon and Nigeria. The book documents many ways these states undermine climate science to promote the use of their fossil fuels.
The propagandists are the online trolls, bot armies and fake experts employed or deployed by plutocrats and petrostates to spread disinformation. This is usually online, but it also appears in newspapers. The professionals bring an air of authority to a particular talking point, and then the propagandists make sure it goes viral. Since Elon Musk rebranded Twitter as X, he has invited back many of the anti-science trolls who were previously kicked out. This anti-social media platform has become a weapon of choice in the attack on both science and scientists. All people and organisations of goodwill should leave X and stop giving it credibility.
The last of the P’s is the Press. The Sheffield Telegraph is unusual in that it prints articles like this, and they should be congratulated. The right-wing press avoids writing about climate change and certainly doesn’t report the most dangerous threats it poses to us. They regularly report the views of the other Ps listed above.
The right-wing press “doesn’t just seek to undermine public faith in the scientific evidence for human-caused climate change. They work to thwart climate progress by casting doubt on the viability of clean energy.”
The media use false balance- the notion that mainstream science and antiscience propaganda deserve equal prominence. In the past, mainstream journalists have worked hard to explain scientific understanding, but now, whether it’s climate or COVID, this commitment to truth and accuracy has waned. Along with “hard” climate denial, we now also have “soft” denial, a downplaying of the seriousness of the problem, which leads to division and delay.
We must listen to scientists, and not those who seek to undermine them, when we consider our lifestyle choices and voting intentions.
Having said all this, the authors are not without their own biases. I don’t believe their one-line attacks on WikiLeaks and Jill Stein of the American Greens as being somehow under the thumb of Putin are justified or credible. But I would still urge you to read this book.
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