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Naomi Oreskes

Naomi Oreskes (/əˈrɛskəs/;[1] born November 25, 1958)[2] is an American historian of science. She became Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University in 2013, after 15 years as Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego.[3]

She has worked on studies of geophysics, environmental issues such as global warming, and the history of science. In 2010, Oreskes co-authored Merchants of Doubt, which identified some parallels between the climate change debate and earlier public controversies, notably the tobacco industry's campaign to obscure the link between smoking and serious disease.

Early life and education[edit]

Oreskes is the daughter of Susan Eileen (née Nagin), a teacher,[4] and Irwin Oreskes, a professor of medical laboratory sciences and former dean of the School of Health Sciences at Hunter College in New York.[5][6][7][8][9] She has three siblings: Michael Oreskes, a journalist; Daniel Oreskes, an actor; and Rebecca Oreskes, a writer and former U.S. Forest Service ranger.[7] She is Jewish.[10]


She studied at Stuyvesant High School, New York,[11] received her Bachelor of Science in mining geology from the Royal School of Mines of Imperial College, University of London in 1981. She later received her PhD degree in the Stanford University Graduate Special Program in Geological Research and History of Science.[12]

Controversies[edit]

Together with Erik Conway and Matthew Shindell, in 2008, Oreskes wrote the paper "From Chicken Little to Dr. Pangloss: William Nierenberg, Global Warming, and the Social Deconstruction of Scientific Knowledge"[33] which argued that William Nierenberg as chairman reframed a National Academy of Sciences committee report on climate change in 1983 into economic terms to avoid action on the topic. Nierenberg died in 2000 but a rebuttal was published in 2010 in the same journal[34] which said the paper contradicted the historical report and there was no evidence that any committee members disagreed with the report; the evidence was that the report reflected the consensus at the time.[35]


In 2015 Oreskes published an opinion piece in The Guardian, titled "There is a New Form of Climate Denialism to Look Out For – So Don't Celebrate Yet",[36] in which she said scientists who call for a continued use of nuclear energy are renewable-energy "deniers" and "myth" makers. She cited an article by four prominent climate scientists (James Hansen, Ken Caldeira, Kerry Emanuel and Tom Wigley) saying nuclear power must be used to combat climate change.[37] An opinion piece by Michael Specter in The New Yorker asserted that she had branded these four scientists as "climate deniers", and that her characterization was absurd, as they were among those who had done the most to push people to combat climate change.[38]


In 2015, news outlets reported that ExxonMobil scientists had found evidence for climate change, but had nonetheless continued to raise doubts about it, a charge that Oreskes also reported.[39][40] The company criticized Oreskes and invited her and the public to read approximately 187 documents written between 1977 and 2014.[39] She and Geoffrey Supran did so, and reported their findings, which supported the original accounts, in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research Letters in 2017.[39][41]

University of Chicago Press, 2020, ISBN 9780226732381

Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don't Know about the Ocean

Princeton University Press, 2019, Edited by Stephen Macedo, ISBN 9780691179001

Why Trust Science?

Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-19-511733-6[42]

The Rejection of Continental Drift: Theory and Method in American Earth Science

Edited with Homer Le Grand, Westview Press, 2003, ISBN 0-8133-4132-9[43]

Plate Tectonics: An Insider’s History of the Modern Theory of the Earth

Perspectives on Geophysics, Special Issue of Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 31B, Oreskes, Naomi and James R. Fleming, eds., 2000.

: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Bloomsbury Press, 2010

Merchants of Doubt

Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Columbia University Press, 2014

The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future

Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality: On Care for Our Common Home, , introduction by Naomi Oreskes, (Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2015) ISBN 978-1-612-19528-5

Pope Francis

. Michael Oppenheimer, N. Oreskes, D. Jamieson, K. Brysse, J. O’Reilly & M. Shindell, University of Chicago Press, 2019, ISBN 978-0-226-60201-1

Discerning Experts: The Practices of Scientific Assessment for Environmental Policy

. Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023. ISBN 978-1-635-57357-2

The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market

Honorary degree, , 2023.[46]

Université libre de Bruxelles

Honorary degree , 2018.[47]

ETH Zurich

The Medal, 2019[48]

British Academy

Mary C. Rabbit Award (History and Philosophy of Geology Division), , 2019 [49]

Geological Society of America

Elected Member of the , 2019[50]

American Philosophical Society

Guggenheim Fellow, 2018-2019, ,[51]

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

Elected Member of , 2017[52]

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Plenary Speaker, , 2017[53]

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication, , 2016[54]

Climate One

Ambassador and Fellow, , 2016[55]

American Geophysical Union

Frederick Anderson Climate Change Award, , 2016[56]

Center for International Environmental Law

Convocation Speaker, The , Olympia and Tacoma, Washington, 2016[57]

Evergreen State College

Public Service Award, , 2015[58]

Geological Society of America

Elected a Fellow of the , 2015[59]

Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

William T. Patten Visiting Lectureship, , March 2015[60]

Indiana University

Herbert Feis Prize for Public History, 2014[61]

American Historical Association

Forum for the History of Science in America Distinguished Lecture 2014[62]

History of Science Society

Presidential Citation for Science and Society 2014[63]

American Geophysical Union

Commencement Speaker 2012[64]

University of California, Riverside

Climate Change Communicator of the Year, George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, 2011

[65]

Francis Bacon Award in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, 2008[66]

Caltech

Chancellors Associates’ Faculty Excellence Award for Community Service 2008[67]

UCSD

Listed, Who's Who in American Science and Engineering, Who's Who in the West

[68]

George Sarton Award Lecture, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2004

[69]

American Philosophical Society Sabbatical Fellowship, 2001–2002

[70]

National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, 1994–1999

[71]

Ritter Memorial Fellowship in History of Marine Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1994

[72]

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers, 1993-94

[68]

Society of Economic Geologists Lindgren Prize for outstanding work by a young scientist, 1993

[73]

Surveys of scientists' views on climate change § Oreskes, 2004

Logology (science of science)

at Harvard University

Oreskes' home page

at IMDb

Naomi Oreskes

. Lecture in TED-Salon, New York, May 2014.

Why we should believe in science

. The Science Show, ABC Radio National, 16 August 2014.

The Collapse of Western Civilization

. Panel Discussion, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 18 March 2014. (Transcript.)

SILA – The Competing Interests Shaping the Future of our Planet

by Claudia Dreifus October 18, 2019

‘I Can’t Just Stand on the Sidelines’: An Interview with Naomi Oreskes

at Internet Archive

Works by or about Naomi Oreskes

on the Muck Rack journalist listing site

Naomi Oreskes