Film Review by The
Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade
What voices do you listen to? Are they voices filled with curiosity and
truthfulness, or dripping with sarcasm and criticism? What is the timbre of those voices? Are they shrill and accusing? Or forthright and honest? When you listen to those voices, do they fill
you with hope about what is possible, or do they cut off conversation with an
edge of anger or cynicism? The voices
that fill our ears also fill our hearts and shape our mental responses to the
world around us. The voices we listen to
can have an incredible effect on who we are, what we believe, and how we act.
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| Naomi Oreskes, Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University |
Merchants of Doubt, based on the book Merchants
of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco
Smoke to Global Warming by Naomi
Oreskes and Erik M. Conway (Bloomsbury Press, 2011) is a well-executed
documentary illustrating the phenomenon of the “spin” industry that has arisen
to drown out the voices of scientists and researchers calling our attention to
the dangers of everything from tobacco smoke to flame-retardant chemicals in
furniture, from pesticides to CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. Using the metaphor of the sleight-of-hand
magician who creates illusions that distract an audience from reality, the film
uses this through-line to effectively explain how public relations firms,
advertising teams, lobbyists and industry front groups have distracted the
public from the dangers of a long list of harmful products and polluting
industries, including cigarettes, DDT, extreme energy extraction, and climate
change. As magician Jamy Ian Swiss explains in the film, “There’s a difference between magicians and the liars and charlatans. It
offends me when someone takes my skills to distort and manipulate people.” The use of Swiss to help narrate the film and
provide the “huckster” hermeneutic through which to interpret and frame the
stories of deception is one of the documentary’s strengths. The film is visually and narratively
compelling, leaving the viewer both angered and yet emboldened to take action
to raise their own voice on behalf of the truth. “Once revealed, never concealed,” as Swiss
observes.
I would recommend this film to professors of
environmental ethics to help students understand the alarmingly effective
tactics used to sway public opinion about environmental issues, particularly
climate disruption. The film would also
work well for environmental ministry teams at churches, synagogues, mosques,
and other houses of worship looking for a captivating example of the moral and
ethical dilemmas we face during this time of Creation-crisis. I also encourage local environmental groups
to host showings of the film in order to for citizens to understand the history
of industry manipulation and begin to more critically engage those voices that
claim to be “experts” in a given field, but, in fact, have little to no
scientific credentials.
I was invited to view the film and be part of a
panel discussion at the Campus Theatre in Lewisburg, PA, sponsored by Susquehanna Valley Progressives and the Rivertown Coalition for
Clean Water and Clean Air. As a
pastor concerned with justice issues – particularly environmental threats – I viewed
the film through an ecotheological lens.
As I watched the parade of “spin-meisters” and their successful attempts
to either distort the truth about the dangers of extreme energy extraction,
cover up or minimize the horror of the damage, or tell outright lies about the
science of climate change, I was reminded of the words from Isaiah: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips,
and I live among a people of unclean lips,” (Isaiah 6:5). We live in a time of manufactured realities
peddled by these Merchants of Doubt who are profiting enormously from their
brilliant tactics of deception.[1] I,
myself, have to admit to my own “unclean lips” in my complicity as a consumer
of goods and energy that lulls me into uncritically engaging in an economic
system from which I benefit, while millions in impoverished communities bear
the costs of my comfortable lifestyle. The
“unclean lips” in the movie gleefully admitted to the tactics they used to
mislead the public and create illusions of doubt about the veracity of science. It’s a pattern that, thanks to Oreskes and
Conway, is being brought to light through careful and exhaustive research.
The
scene from Isaiah continues with the prophet feeling the searing,
yet cleansing, heat from the fiery ember of the altar fire placed on his
tongue. In the face of the world’s
deception, a voice of divine authority asks Isaiah, "Whom shall I send,
and who will go for us?" To which we – individually, collectively, and as
people of faith – can boldly answer in the prophets words: "Here am I;
send me!" In other words, we can answer the call to announce the prophetic
truth – that God is indeed the sovereign over all Creation, and we are called
to be servants in this Earth-temple. And
that we, as the beloved Children and caretakers of this temple of Earth, will
be held accountable for what we have done and what we have left undone.[2]
 |
| Dr. James Hansen, climatologist |
One
particularly compelling figure from the film was the climate scientist Dr.
James Hansen who reminded me of the prophet Isaiah. Dr. Hansen worked for the Goddard Institute
for Space Studies in 1988. An
unassuming, soft-spoken science-geek, his research indicated that our planet
was experiencing the same kind of greenhouse effect as Venus. All the carbon dioxide being released into
the air from the burning of fossil fuels was like putting a blanket around the
planet holding in the heat and destabilizing the atmosphere. The warming climate draws in more moisture
from the seas in what’s known as “positive feedback,” which intensifies the
hurricanes and typhoons that form over the seas and oceans. At the same time, the seas are rising because
the polar ice caps are melting at a rate fast enough to inundate coastlands and
swallow entire islands.
Immediately after testifying to this truth in
Congress, Hansen and other scientists like him were attacked for their research. Over the past 25 years climate scientists
have received threatening and hate-filled emails, been mocked and lampooned in
the press and on the Internet, and had their integrity as scientists questioned
– an effort led not by other respected scientists but by lobbyists, so-called “think
tanks,” PR firms, and industry front groups financed by the fossil fuel
industry. For many years, Hansen and
other scientists shied away from these attacks, avoided any media altercations,
and trusted that as their research was studied and shared with policy makers,
steps would be taken to address the problem.
Instead, the amount of carbon dioxide has sky-rocketed as the public,
industry and governments did either nothing or very little to respond to the
data.
After years
of keeping quiet, however, he realized that if he did not speak up, the truth
simply would not be heard. In an
uncharacteristic display of boldness, Hanson has emerged as one of the primary
voices speaking the truth and leading the movement to address the dangers of
the climate crisis. Like Isaiah whose
tongue was seared by the burning ember, Dr. Hansen has joined climate protests
and marches, speaks at events, and no longer cowers from the attacks of those
with unclean lips. He has consistently
and forthrightly voiced the truth about the challenges we face. In his efforts
to draw attention to this crisis, he has even been arrested during nonviolent
demonstrations of civil disobedience. “You just have to say what you think is
right,” Hansen has said in response to his critics. In other words, “Here am
I. Send me.”
The other compelling figure in the film is Bob
Inglis, a six-term Republican congressman who had been a climate-change denier
until he witnessed first-hand the rapid changes in ecosystems across the globe
due to the greenhouse effect and examined the ice core samples in the Arctic
that tell the history of human-induced climate change.
Like Paul in the book of Acts who experienced
a conversion after hearing the voice of the risen Christ, Inglis experienced a “climate-change
conversion” and has taken the message of
climate change to his constituents – and suffered the consequences. Because this message did not square with the “tribe”
of conservative Republicans and their ideology, Inglis was ousted from his seat
and ostracized from the Party.
 |
| Bob Inglis, 6-term Republican Congressman |
What Inglis
discovered is just how effective the frame of “freedom” is in swaying Americans
away from heeding the message about danger.
When regulations against cigarettes were on the horizon in the 60s and
70s, the message was: we can’t let them take away our “freedom” to smoke. This ideal of freedom is at the heart of what
it means to be American and has been brilliantly maneuvered into galvanizing
the public against regulations that would actually be in their best interest. As the film shows, any regulation that aims
to protect public health and well-being (but threaten corporate profits) can be
spun as an infringement on freedom. This
has worked for gun regulation, climate regulation, air pollution regulation,
nutrition regulation, and every other attempt to reign in those industries that
off-load the true costs of their businesses (loss of health, property, clean
air, water and land) onto the public.
Ironically, as Inglis points out, people who don't like big government are going to
get more of it. Billions of dollars will
be spent by the government to deal with catastrophic weather events,
climate-refugees, and wars over access to land, water and resources – all of
which are directly affected by climate disruption. “People are going to die - that's why it
matters,” says Inglis. “We're running out of time to prevent a train wreck.”
The film does end on a
note of hope and empowerment, with the message:
you don't have to accept things the way they are. “The lie is that we can't innovate, that we
have to rely on fossil fuels,” says Inglis.
“I want to be part of saying: We
did rise.” Sometimes
the voice of God comes to us in unexpected ways, saying unexpected things. Sometimes the truth is hard to say, and even
harder to hear and accept. But when that
truth is spoken in love, when it is spoken with an open heart and mind, with no
agenda other than to share that truth and make things better, it has incredible
power.
The Good News is that the voices of the prophets,
the voice of Jesus, inspire us to raise our own prophetic voice. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall
set you free,” as the Teacher said (John 8:32).
Of course, the truth is going to hurt like hell first. But only by acknowledging this truth can we
get down to the hard work of healing and rectifying the wrongs we have
done. The divine voice is not calling
for us to run and hide, or lie about the truth, or be cynical and jaded about
this world. The voice of divine
authority calls us into relationship with each other, with Creation, with our
community. Whether that voice comes to
you through the words of a climate-converted politician, or the soft-spoken
words of a scientist, or the tough-love words of a pastor – God’s voice is
still speaking. And with the courage of
Isaiah we can respond: Here am I – send
me! Send us!
[1]
See also the short documentary film by Josh Fox, The Sky is Pink, recounting the deliberate attempts of the fracking
industry to deceive the public about the dangers of shale gas drilling: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/sky-pink/.
[2]
See Pope Francis’ injunction against those who harm God’s Creation: “God Will Judge You on Whether You Cared for
Earth” http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_REL_VATICAN_CLIMATE_CHANGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
