36 Quotes by Naomi Oreskes

The industry had realized you could create the impression of controversy simply by asking questions

...and that greater use of pesticides was the key to wiping out world hunger (although most social scientist disagree, pointing out that there is plenty of food in the world; the problem we face is one of unequal distribution.)

An all purpose expert is an oxymoron

An all-purpose expert is an oxymoron.

Doubt is crucial to science in the version we call curiosity or healthy scepticism, it drives science forward – but it also makes science vulnerable to misrepresentation, because it is easy to take uncertainties out of context and create the impression that everything is unresolved. This was the tobacco industry's key insight: that you could use normal scientific uncertainty to undermine the status of actual scientific knowledge.

When we damage the environment, we damage everything we depend on.

When God made the planet, he made the plants, he made the animals, he made the Sun and the Moon, and he made us, and we’re all interconnected, and when we disregard, disrespect, or damage any part of it, we do violence against creation.

Sensible decision making involves acting on the information we have, even while accepting that it may well be imperfect and our decisions may need to be revisited and revised in light of new information.

What to do about climate change is political, it’s social, and it’s moral, which is one of the reasons the scientific community reached out to the Pope, to ask for his involvement in this issue.