In a book that inspired a documentary by the same name, the co-authors, both historians of science, pull the curtain back on the small group of scientists who dispute evidence of climate change. Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway show that these scientists have not limited their scientific dissents to climate-related issues; they have also argued against the adverse health effects of tobacco smoke. Calling them “Merchants of Doubt,” Oreskes and Conway explore the motivations behind their stances. Many of them were prominent scientists during the Cold War era, and the authors argue that they appear to have begun equating environmentalism with socialism, and government intervention with tyranny.

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AN APPEAL TO REASON (2008)

A Cool Look at Global Warming

By Nigel Lawson

The Overlook Press; 144 pp.

For a skeptical view of climate change, you might turn to Nigel Lawson’s book. Lawson, the former secretary of state for energy under Margaret Thatcher, argues that though climate science does contain a measureof truth, it is mostly overstated — in his view, any decrease in quality of life over the next 100 years would be modest, at most. And even if the most pessimistic environmental forecast were to prove true, Lawson believes, society would do what it has done for centuries: adapt. His standpoint is decidedly economic, laying out a case for why taking action now is both expensive and unwarranted.

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FLIGHT BEHAVIOR (2012)

By Barbara Kingsolver

HarperCollins Publishers; 448 pp.

When this novel’s protagonist, Dellarobia, witnesses a striking vision of orange in the mountains, like fire with no smoke, she is convinced it is a sign from God. The vision makes her a quasi-celebrity, drawing journalists, religious leaders and a climate scientist into her small town. The various reactions and interpretations of the phenomenon — later discovered to be a colony of Monarch butterflies displaced by a flood in their usual home in Mexico — reflect contemporary conversations on climate change and open up Dellarobia’s world. Barbara Kingsolver shows how individual motivations and circumstance determine belief.