SCIENCE UNDER SIEGE

Pursuing science and truth in the age of disinformation.

On the tail of a historic deadly pandemic, in the midst of a climate crisis that threatens the world, perhaps the greatest danger is the overwhelming rise of disinformation that threatens to crush and diminish science that might save us. With that, two renowned scientists—climatologist Mann and pediatrician and global health expert Hotez—who are veterans of the disinformation wars have come together to create a work that seeks to provide a way out. The authors identify what they call “the p’s”—five key forces creating a dangerous modern realm of anti-science: “the plutocrats, the authoritarian petrostates (assisted by polluters and the politicians who advocate for them), the ‘pros’ who use their professional (or in some cases scholarly) credentials to deceive or promote unsupported contrarian views, the propagandists who amplify them on social media and other venues, and, increasingly, the press, including even the mainstream press.” The narrative reveals, in compelling detail, how these forces weave a complicated web of public deception and political danger in the face of some of humanity’s greatest challenges. With clear-eyed prose moving through chapters that explain each of these actors, the authors provide a clear, persuasive road map to fight back against the forces that diminish and dismiss science. The result is an empowering work in a world that can often feel lost to untruths. “While there is urgency—unlike any we’ve ever known—there is still agency,” they write. “We can still avert disaster if we can understand the nature of the mounting anti-science threat and formulate a strategy to counter it.”

A necessary and propulsive argument that offers optimism in the face of one of the world’s most destructive forces.