Merchants of Doubt

Roger Revelle was a distinguished oceanographer and climate scientist who is best known for being among the first to argue that humankind’s industrial CO2 emissions could cause global climate change. He advised the government extensively on climate policy, including by serving on key NAS panels, and strongly advocated taking action to reduce emissions. But at the very end of his life, Revelle agreed to coauthor a paper with Fred Singer—and then suffered a near-fatal heart attack. Singer wrote most of the paper, including several passages arguing that climate change was an overblown threat and too poorly understood to justify government action. After Revelle’s death, Singer began insisting that Revelle shared his contrarian views about climate change. However, Revelle’s family and his graduate student Justin Lancaster claim that Revelle regretted working with Singer and consistently viewed global warming as a serious problem up until his death. Singer sued Lancaster over his claims, but Oreskes and Conway argue that the relevant facts strongly support Lancaster’s view. Singer’s attack on Revelle shows how “merchants of doubt” frequently go to extreme lengths—including blatant dishonesty and baseless lawsuits—to undermine scientific evidence and prevent the public from distinguishing between legitimate and sham research.