Reality check : how science deniers threaten our future / Donald R. Prothero ; foreword by Michael Shermer ; Illustrations by Pat Linse.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Prothero, Donald R.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pseudoscience.

Science--Social aspects.

Science.

Science--Political aspects.

Physical Description:

xvi, 369 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

How science deniers threaten our future

Place of Publication:

Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2013]

Summary:

The battles over evolution, climate change, childhood vaccinations, and the causes of AIDS, alternative medicine, oil shortages, population growth, and the place of science in our country--all are reaching a fevered pitch. Many people and institutions have exerted enormous efforts to misrepresent or flatly deny demonstrable scientific reality to protect their nonscientific ideology, their power, or their bottom line. To shed light on this darkness, Donald R. Prothero explains the scientific process and why society has come to rely on science not only to provide a better life but also to reach verifiable truths no other method can obtain. He describes how major scientific ideas that are accepted by the entire scientific community (evolution, anthropogenic global warming, vaccination, the HIV cause of AIDS, and others) have been attacked with totally unscientific arguments and methods. Prothero argues that science deniers pose a serious threat to society, as their attempts to subvert the truth have resulted in widespread scientific ignorance, increased risk of global catastrophes, and deaths due to the spread of diseases that could have been prevented.

Contents:

Reality check

Science, our candle in the darkness

Betrayers of the truth: selling out science

Making the environment the enemy: acid rain, the ozone hole, and the demonization of Rachel Carson

Hot enough for you? The heated debate over a warming planet

Gimme that old time religion: creationism, intelligent design, and the denial of humanity's place in nature

Jenny's body count: playing Russian roulette with our children

Victims of modern witch doctors: AIDS denialism

If it quacks like a quack: snake-oil con artists in an era of medical science

What's your sign? the ancient pseudoscience of astrology

Down the slope of Hubbert's curve: the end of cheap oil and natural resources

Far from the madding crowd: human overpopulation and its consequences

The rejection of reality: how the denial of science threatens us all.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780253010292

0253010292

OCLC:

812509019