I've always liked movies and novels about conspiracies, but I didn't know how realistic they were. Pretty much, it turns out.
THE ENERGY CONSPIRACY
"Pressure on Exxon Mobil and the energy industry increased on Wednesday with the release of a new cache of decades-old industry documents about climate change, even as Exxon pushed back against efforts to investigate the company over its climate claims through the years. The new documents were released by an activist research organization, the Center for International Environmental Law, which published the project on its website.
The documents, according to the environmental law center’s director, Carroll Muffett, suggest that the industry had the underlying knowledge of climate change even 60 years ago. “From 1957 onward, there is no doubt that Humble Oil, which is now Exxon, was clearly on notice” about rising CO2 in the atmosphere and the prospect that it was likely to cause global warming, he said. What’s more, he said, the documents show the industry was beginning to organize against regulation of air pollution.
THE AUTOMOBILE CONSPIRACY
As you've undoubtedly read, Volkswagon created software that would make diesel engines behave differently when being tested for emissions. Eleven million cars worldwide are fitted with the "defeat device." Other car manufacturers are now being investigated.
Then there's our old friend...
THE TOBACCO CONSPIRACY
Tobacco Explained, a report based on internal memos and other documents from the tobacco industry itself, states:
"Publicly the industry denied and continues to deny that it is clear that smoking causes lung cancer - yet it has understood the carcinogenic nature of its product since the 1950s.
Until recently the industry has denied its product is addictive. Most recently it has used a definition of addictiveness so broad that it encompasses shopping and the Internet. Internally, it has known since the 1960s that the crucial selling point of its product is the chemical dependence of its customers.
The companies deny that they target the young. The documents reveal the obvious - that the market of young smokers is of central importance to the industry. Many documents reveal the companies’ pre-occupation with teenagers and younger children - and the lengths they have gone to in order to influence smoking behaviour in this age group."
THE PHARMACEUTICALS CONSPIRACY
I used to think the conspiracy theory that somebody somewhere came up with the cure for cancer but it was bought and kept secret by the pharmaceuticals industry is pretty far-fetched. I'm still not convinced, but there's enough to indict the industry without that. In the book, Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher, Gwen Olsen, a pharmaceuticals rep for 15 years, writes, "I was being encouraged to minimize side effects when I talked to doctors...we were being trained to misinform people..."
She was part of a very large business: according to one study, Big Pharma spends $18.5 billion per year promoting their drugs to doctors. That's $30,000 per doctor in the United States.
Did you know that drug companies publish only a fraction of the studies they fund--the ones with results favorable to their products? Also, they have ghostwriters write articles that appear in medical journals and pay doctors to put their names to them.
As someone observed, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you!" At this rate, conspiracy writers won't be running out of material anytime soon.
