This interview was conducted in English.
Find this interview and its explanatory dossier at https://www.diagrammes.fr/en/folders/the-manufacture-of-denial
Duration: 1h02
Naomi Oreskes is an Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She is an accomplished earth scientist, historian, and public speaker known for her extensive research on the interplay between science, society, and politics. Her work brings critical insights into how scientific knowledge shapes and is shaped by broader cultural and political forces.
Her expertise centers on the role of science in society, the reality of anthropogenic climate change, and the pervasive impact of disinformation campaigns that obstruct climate action.
In our video interview, Naomi Oreskes discusses the enduring struggle against climate denialism, tracing its roots from tobacco and acid rain skepticism in the 1980s to the far more aggressive and politicized climate denial tactics witnessed today. She elaborates on how the rise of authoritarianism, notably during Donald Trump’s presidency, has fueled a backlash against environmental progress by empowering actors she calls the “merchants of doubt.” Instead of merely discrediting scientific facts, these actors now seek to dismantle the institutions that produce climate research, threatening efforts to address global warming.
Oreskes also highlights the stark power imbalance in the climate crisis: while powerful fossil fuel interests use their proximity to political power to maintain the status quo, vulnerable populations around the world face the gravest consequences of inaction. The deliberate production of ignorance, she argues, has become a highly effective weapon wielded by the far right to stall meaningful climate solutions.
Our interview, conducted in Boston in March 2025, delves deeply into these urgent issues, offering a vital perspective on the challenges and stakes of contemporary climate politics.
CHAPTERS:
00:00:00 – Introduction to The Manufacture of Denial
00:04:40 - (Chap.1) The George C. Marshall Institute: From MAD to Star Wars
00:14:53 - (Chap.2) White House Interference in the Acid Rain Report
00:20:13 - (Chap.3) The Montreal Protocol, a “backdoor to communism”?
00:23:36 - (Chap.4) Revelle, Schelling, Nordhaus: From Outright Denial to Organized Delay
00:30:14 - (Chap.5) George H.W. Bush’s “White House Effect”
01:40:27 - (Chap.6) The New Quality of Climate Denial
01:44:44 - (Chap.7) Trump 2.0: From Denial to Destruction
01:52:25 - (Chap.8) Carbon Capture as a New Form of Denial
01:56:51 - (Chap.9) Difference, Export, and Convergence of Denial
Interviewed by Marius Bickhardt
Conducted on the 24th of March 2025
Directed by Adam Mikaelian
Editing by Thierry Corroyer
Produced by Vladimir Gurewich
Dossier : Marius Bickhardt
Visual Reasearch : Sophie Liner
Music by Laz Lo, Eeryskies, Damiens Simons
Voice : Amanda Bay
Podcast production : Deborah Le Grand
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