LAUSR

Anyone paying even the slightest attention to the news in the last few years would have been hard-pressed to avoid reports of wildfires, floods, hurricanes, heat waves, and other natural disasters. The severity and frequency of these extreme weather events raise urgent questions about the degree to which they are related to climate changes and what measures we should take in response. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced people worldwide to grapple with questions about the efficacy of measures like masks, social distancing, and vaccines in controlling the spread of the virus or mitigating its effects. Most of us look to science for answers to these questions, but not everyone accepts the answers scientists give. Some dispute particular scientific claims, but some go farther and challenge the trustworthiness of science as an enterprise. Naomi Oreskes, a professor of the history of science and affiliate professor of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University, addresses these doubts and challenges in Why Trust Science?