Tag Archives: power

“Merchants of Doubt” by Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway

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Oreskes_Merchants_of_DoubtISBN 978 14088 2483 2. “Merchants of Doubt – How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming” was written by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway and first published by Bloomsbury in 2010 (this paperback in 2012). If you fast forward to the Conclusion in this book you may be forgiven for thinking you were still reading the last book we reviewed “Debunking Economics” by Steve Keen. For what links the two is how a dogmatic belief in “free market fundamentalism” can cause people to abandon all reason. As if under the influence of some bizarre cult perfectly reasonable people start to deny the very principle of reality: they start fighting scientific rationalism with propaganda.

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Genetic Modification in our food: the gloves come off

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Nothing more clearly illustrates the division between old fashioned green thinking & the modern sustainability movement than Genetically Modified food. A recent clash of Tweets between author Mark Lynas (“The God Species“) and Dr Vandana Shiva (author “Soil Not Oil“) exposes just how deep the battle wounds have become. The gloves are off but maybe both are missing the point.

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Fracking in the Aylesbury Vale

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Less than a week ago I learnt that pre-planning applications had been made to Aylesbury Vale District Council for hydraulic fracturing. If that means nothing to you then maybe the term “fracking” does. It is highly controversial. It is time we started reading about this in our local newspapers. Fracking is quite an old technology but since oil prices have risen it has been dusted off and refined. It allows us to extract oil and gas from places we never previously considered to be economical. How about the Chilterns? Continue reading →

“A Game as Old as Empire” edited by Steven Hiatt

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ISBN 978-1-57675-395-8 “A Game as Old as Empire – The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption” was published in 2007 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. The introduction is by John Perkins (author of “Confessions of an Economic Hitman“) and this compilation was edited by Steven Hiatt. It consists of twelve stories by thirteen authors. “Economic hit men (EHMs)” wrote John Perkins in his 2004 book “play a game as old as empire” from which the title of this follow-up comes. “Confessions” was a bestseller and helped introduce many people to the concept of economic imperialism as deliberate ploy by the strong over the weak. Continue reading →