The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market

The Gonzaga Climate Center was honored to host Prof. Naomi Oreskes to discuss her new book "The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market"
Description:
Many Americans think that “Big Government” is wasteful and inefficient and we should have faith in “The Free Market” to solve our problems. Yet, history shows that government has more often than not been the solution to problems that markets produced, and many large government programs--from Social Security to the invention of the internet--have been very successful. So why do so many of us have so much faith in “The Market” and so little faith in government? In this talk, I recount the story of how American business leaders intervened in politics, popular culture, the educational system, religious life, and academic discourse to promote market fundamentalism.
About the speaker:
Naomi Oreskes is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. An internationally renowned scientist and historian, she is a leading voice on the reality on anthropogenic climate change and the history of efforts to undermine climate action and scientific truth. Oreskes is an author of eight books, including, Why Trust Science? (2019) and Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean (2021), and over 150 scholarly and popular articles. Her opinion pieces have been appeared around the globe, including on The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times (London), and the Frankfurter Allgemeine. In 2015, she wrote the Introduction to the Melville House edition of the Papal Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality, Laudato Si. Her 2010 book with Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt, has been translated into nine languages, sold over 100,000 copies, and made into a documentary film. In 2018, she became a Guggenheim Fellow, and in 2019 was awarded the British Academy Medal. Her new book with Erik Conway, The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loath Government and Love the Free Market, was published by Bloomsbury Press in February 2023.
More information on the Center at www.gonzaga.edu...
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[@johnsmith5139]

Excellent talk.

[@kimlibera663]

Study Galileo & you will why constituents must question authority. No one questions the input of CO2 but we are only at 0.04%. CO2 is an invisible, odorless gas. It is not a pollutant. NO2/SO2 are pollutants-both natural & anthropogenic. Of these 2, only NO2 is the greenhouse gas while SO2 has a mysterious reflective property. Most of the climate change we have had is due to natural effects, notably the lunar gravity pull on the Hadley Cells to northward trending positions, a disturbance in the jetstream (due to rotational forces), disturbances in the thermohaline circulation. Thermohaline circulation, not well understood, but in recent weeks we have seen a slowing of the core's rotation & disturbance in which the volume of the geoid has been redistributed. BTW water vapor is your most potent greenhouse gas. With regard to govt, people run for office to rig markets & that is why govt does not work for us. I do think our grid should be amplified with ALL forms of energy. You cannot sustain the entire grid on just solar & wind. We do not have enough REEs for this stuff & lawmakers are underestimating the sheer amount of energy needs. Blackouts will occur. There is also, as referenced in your pod series, a competition for space. Solar & wind require enormous acreage. This will compete for space with the need for housing, the need to preserve our national forests & just plain old woods, farms, livestock grazing land, the need for arts & cultural spaces, parks. You cannot carpet the whole country & think the apple cart will not get upset. You also underestimate the expense of an all electric society. Electricity is very expensive. Perhaps, you professors might be willing to donate a third of your salary for redistribution. BTW banning gas stoves is not going to stop heat waves or blizzards.

[@johnsmith5139]

Absolute rigmarole of bullshit.

[@Quartzities]

We have nuclear, thermal solar and geothermal energy, and high altitude wind. Efficiency and insulation and synthetic fuels.
Windmills and photovoltaic are just the oil lobby's distracting refrain.