We live in a world that is so rife with conspiracy theories that it’s easy to forget that real conspiracies do, in fact, exist from time to time. More than that, some of them are a matter of public record, it’s just that because they’re ongoing, and they’re focused on misinformation, a lot of people remain unaware that they exist. Perhaps the most destructive of these, in the long term, is the multi-industry campaign of science denial that has been waged in support of nuclear, lead, fossil fuel, and tobacco industries. By now, most of you are probably aware of the ways in which the climate denial campaign has been influenced by the efforts of the tobacco lobby to mislead people about their product. If you’re not, here’s a short video from Yale Climate connections that will give you an idea what I’m talking about:

For more information, go to the Merchants of Doubt website for the resources that Oreskes and Conway used, and information about their book by the same name.

And now, the Center for International Environmental Law has a video giving a new perspective on the connection between fossil fuels and tobacco:

For a bit more on this, check out Peter Sinclair’s post on the same subject, if you haven’t seen it already.