Naomi Oreskes

Naomi Oreskes, PhD is the author of "The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change," which laid to rest the idea that there was significant disagreement in the scientific community about the reality of global warming and its human causes.

Since its publication in 1994, the essay has been widely cited by scientific and political leaders - including Sir David King, science advisor to Tony Blair - in The New Yorker, USA Today, National Geographic, and Parade, in the Royal Society's publication, "A Guide to Facts and Fictions about Climate Change," and, most notably, in Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth. In an interview on NPR, the former Vice President told Terry Gross that, when he goes on the road, the single item that provokes the most discussion is his discussion of this study.

Professor Oreskes teaches history and science studies at the University of California - San Diego, and has served as a consultant to the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. She has held grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Philosophical Society, and is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in Science and Engineering. Her op-ed pieces have appeared in The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Los Angeles Times.

Professor Oreskes' books include The Rejection of Continental Drift: Theory and Method in American Earth Science, Science Without Laws: Model Systems, Cases, Exemplary Narratives, and Plate Tectonics: An Insider's History of the Modern Theory of the Earth, which was cited by Library Journal as one of the best science and technology books of 2002, and by Choice as an outstanding academic title of 2003. Her latest book is Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, co-written with Erik M. Conway.