Podcast appearances and mentions of James R Fleming

In this episode, we discuss… What science really is, both as body of knowledge and a constantly evolving process  Why one study is never enough and the importance of multiple methods, reproducibility, and scientific consensus over time When "gold standard" research falls short and why fields like nutrition require more flexible, creative approaches Science's built-in caution and how new ideas face a high bar of proof, slowing acceptance but strengthening reliability How doubt is manufactured, from the tobacco era to climate science, using fringe voices to challenge strong consensus The role of ideology, and how "freedom" narratives can shape public resistance to scientific evidence Acting without certainty and why we must make public health decisions even when data isn't 100% complete AI and misinformation and the promise and risk of tools like OpenAI in shaping how we consume science Naomi Oreskes Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences ON LEAVE SPRING 2026 emailoreskes@fas.harvard.edu Faculty Assistant: Yaz Alfata Primary Areas of Research: Agnotology; the Political Economy of Scientific Knowledge; History and Philosophy of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Science and Technology Studies (STS); the History of Climate Change Disinformation Secondary Areas of Interest: Science Policy, Science and Religion, Women and Gender Studies   Naomi Oreskes is Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. A world-renowned earth scientist, historian and public speaker, she is the author of the best-selling book, Merchants of Doubt (2010) and a leading voice on the role of science in society, the reality of anthropogenic climate change, and the role of disinformation in blocking climate action. Oreskes is author or co-author of 9 books, and over 150 articles, essays and opinion pieces, including Merchants of Doubt (Bloomsbury, 2010), The Collapse of Western Civilization (Columbia University Press, 2014), Discerning Experts (University Chicago Press, 2019), Why Trust Science? (Princeton University Press, 2019), and Science on a Mission: American Oceanography from the Cold War to Climate Change, (University of Chicago Press, 2021). Merchants of Doubt, co-authored with Erik Conway, was the subject of a documentary film of the same name produced by participant Media and distributed by SONY Pictures Classics, and has been translated into nine languages. A new edition of Merchants of Doubt, with an introduction by Al Gore, was published in 2020. Her latest book, with Erik Conway, is The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loath Government and Love the Free Market, which has been translated to French and Italian. Oreskes wrote the Introduction to the Melville House edition of the Papal Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality, Laudato Si, and her essays and opinion pieces on climate change have appeared in leading newspapers around the globe, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, the Times (London), and Frankfurter Allegemeine. Her numerous awards and prizes include the 2019 Geological Society of American Mary C. Rabbitt Award, the 2016 Stephen Schneider Award for outstanding Climate Science Communication, the 2015 Public Service Award of the Geological Society of America, the 2015 Herbert Feis Prize of the American Historical Association for her contributions to public history, and the 2014 American Geophysical Union Presidential Citation for Science and Society. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. In 2018, she was named a Guggenheim Fellow, and in 2019 she was awarded the British Academy Medal. In 2024, she was awarded the Nonino Foundation "Maestro del Nostro Tempo" award. And in 2025, she was awarded the Volvo Environment Prize for her contributions in "shaping our understanding of how scientific knowledge is collectively constructed and addressing the challenges of misinformation in public discourse."  Curriculum Vitae   Select Publications The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loath Government and Love the Free Market, 2023 (Bloomsbury Press) Science on a Mission, 2021 (University of Chicago Press) Why Trust Science?, 2019 (Princeton University Press) Science and Technology in the Global Cold War, 2014 (MIT Press) The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future, 2014 (Columbia University Press)   Collapse of Western Civilization Home Page Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, 2010. (New York: Bloomsbury Press.) Merchants of Doubt Home Page Merchants of Doubt at the 52nd New York Film Festival, October 8, 2014 Models in Environmental Regulatory Decision Making, Whipple, Chris et al. (fourteen additional authors), 2007. (Washington DC: National Academy of Sciences National Research Council, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology), 287 pp. The Rejection of Continental Drift: Theory and Method in American Earth Science, 1999. (New York: Oxford University Press) In the Media Testimony Before the US Senate Budget Committee, Twitter, June 22, 2023 Science Isn't Always Perfect - But We Should Still Trust It, TIME, October 2019 Climate Change Will Cost Us Even More Than We Think, New York Times, October 2019 Escaping Extinction, World Economic Forum, January 2019 Yes, ExxonMobil Misled the Public, LA Times, September 2017 What Exxon Mobil Didn't Say About Climate Change, The New York Times, August 2017 Assessing ExxonMobil's Climate Change Communications (177-2014), Environment Research Letters, August 2017 Scientists Dive Into the Political Fray, PBS Newshour, April 2017 How to Break the Climate Deadlock, Scientific American, November 2015 What Did Exxon Know?, On The Media, November 2015 The Pope and the Planet, The Open Mind, November 2015 Exxon's Climate Concealment, New York Times, October 2015 Naomi Oreskes, a Lightning Rod in a Changing Climate, New York Times, June 2015 A Chronicler of Warnings Denied, New York Times, October 2014 Merchants of Doubt, Documentary from Sony Pictures Classics, 2014 "Why We Should Trust Scientists," TED Talk, June 2014 The 2014 Vatican Environmental Summit: Can a Pope Help Sustain Humanity and Ecology?, New York Times Interview for Cosmologics Magazine Prof. Oreskes discusses her book, "The Collapse of Western Civilization..."  Naomi Oreskes - The Collapse of Western Civilization, Inquiring Minds Podcast "A View From the Climate Change Future," National Public Radio via Boston's WBUR Edited Volumes Oreskes, Naomi, ed., with Homer E. Le Grand, 2001.  Plate Tectonics: An Insider's History of the Modern Theory of the Earth (Boulder: Westview Press), paperback edition February 2003. Edited Journal Volumes Oreskes, Naomi and James R. Fleming, eds. 2000.  "Perspectives on Geophysics," Special Issue of   Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 31B, September 2000.

June 6, 1944: One of the most important weather forecasts in world history would occur in early June 1944, as Allied meteorologists prepared to deliver the final word for the long-awaited D-Day invasion of Normandy. From the AccuWeather.com archives the reporting goes that thousands of lives and the tide of the war depended entirely on teams of Allied meteorologists who determined what constituted suitable weather conditions for the invasion in a small-time window. The Allies had decided that they wanted to go in at low tide on the landing beaches and that the airborne needed basically a full moon to have the proper dropping conditions,” Historian and Author John McManus said. High winds and rough seas could impede the amphibious assault and low clouds could block vital air support. The weather factors that would play a significant role in the invasion would be wind, visibility and cloud cover. “On the Allied side, six meteorologists working in three different teams were responsible for the D-Day forecasts,” according to a report by James R. Fleming, president of the International Commission on History of Meteorology. By June 3, the forecasting team determined the June 5 would not be an ideal day for the invasion as high pressure over France and low-pressure northwest of Ireland would maintain strong southwesterly winds in the [English] Channel, meaning seas too rough for landings and cloud coverage too thick for bombing operations. Years of preparation were at stake, but on June 4, hours before the launch of D-Day operations amid an approaching storm, British Group Captain James Stagg urged General Eisenhower for a last-minute delay, according to the History Channel. According to History Channel, only a few invasion dates were possible because of the need for a full moon for illumination and for a low tide at dawn to expose underwater German defenses; June 5 was the first date in a narrow three-day window. “The American team used an analogue method that compared the current weather with past conditions. Their forecast was overly optimistic and would have resulted in disaster on June 5, 1944,” Fleming said. At the last minute, following Stagg’s advice and the other British forecasters’, Eisenhower postponed the invasion. “June 5 becomes quickly off the table because of a terrible storm that is coming in and it’s going to make any invasion basically impossible,” McManus said. “So, Ike has to postpone it a day and then he has to sift through dozens of weather reports to ultimately decide on June 6 as a kind of an opening in the system that allows weather that’s at least good enough, while nowhere near ideal.” German forecasters also predicted the hostile weather conditions; however, they did not expect the high winds or rough seas to weaken until mid-June. The German forecasters did not have the same amount of forecast information as the Allied forces. The German Navy had few remaining vessels in the Atlantic and their weather stations in Greenland had been closed down. This would prove folly, as many Nazi commanders left their defenses. “German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel even returned home to personally present a pair of Parisian shoes to his wife as a birthday present,” the History Channel reported. With a more accurate forecast from Allied forces, Eisenhower would commence the D-Day operations, setting a historic shift in the war.  “On Tuesday, June 6, 1944, under barely tolerable conditions, the largest amphibious landing force ever assembled landed on the beaches of Normandy,” Fleming said. More than 150,000 Allied forces would lead the charge to liberate France from the Nazi's control, leading to the death of nearly 2,500 Americans in one of the bloodiest days of the war, according to NPR.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As atmospheric carbon dioxide increases, does the world have to get hotter? Controlling the earth’s weather and climate is this week’s topic. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:26 Introduction 01:11 Chemical Agent: Silver Iodide 03:02 Interview: James R. Fleming on Climate Engineering 07:47 Storing Carbon with Phytoplankton 11:19 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Michal Meyer and Hilary Domush for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

-- Wilson Quarterly Magazine (Spring 2007) "The Climate Engineers" article by James R. Fleming -- "Environmental Stewardship", Mixing Fear with Comedy, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, CO2, Reflecting Sunlight into Space with Reflective Particles and Mirrors, Ice Ages, NASA Research Center - San Francisco, Radical Technological Quick-Fixes, Lowell Wood - Dr. Evil Part Two - Chief Pentagon Weapon Design, Edward Teller - Dr. Evil Part One - Using Metallic Particles to Heat or Cool Atmosphere, Spraying Sulfur in Skies - War on the Stratosphere - 747 or Military Super-Blimp to Pump out Sulfur, --"Report from Iron Mountain" book--, Orbiting Mirrors, Frothing Ocean Waters, Injection of Diatomaceous Earth into Arctic Skies, Scientists Living on Grants, Specialization, Climate Engineering, Re-freezing Ice Caps, Winter Storms, "Planetary Thermostat" - Dialed by Top Psychopath - Artificially Lowering Temperature, Hoover Institution - Stanford University, Reagan era Star Wars Missile Defense System, Climate Control Schemes, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - IPCC (UN), Military Industrial Complex, Navy Dirigible (Airship) - USS MACON - "Sons of Light" - MACON - French for MASON, Aerial Spraying, An Uncertain Future, The "New Titans", Ancient Priesthoods use of Sun in Sky - Spokespersons for the god - Waving Incense - White-Coated Priesthoods and Theories, Appeasing the Sun - Getting the Sun to Come Up in the Morning, Egypt - Pharaoh Represented RA (the Sun), Reign of Royalty over Commoners - Fertilization of Earth by Sun, New Slavery - Looming Extinction - Trust in Paid Expert Front-Men, Destroying Old Way of Living, Death of Individualism (for Commoners), --Article - parallelnormal.wordpress.com - "Prepare to be Transitioned into Your New Habitat" May 7, 2007-- Crowded into Buses and Trains - Accidents and Shootings - UN Urban Habitats - Wireless Internet Access on Buses, MIT - Internet Monitoring - Motorola - Public-Private Partnerships, Supra-National Governments, "1000 Points of Light" - "Pulling the Strings", --"E-Topia" book by William J. Mitchell (Electronic-Topians) - Global Digital Network - Urban Design - Virtual Places - Electronic Meeting Places, Digiphiles and Digiphobes, CIA and Professors, Marketing the "Wonderful" Orwellian Cities, --May 9, 2007 parallelnormal.com article "The Brother is a Brother" -- Masonic "Bling" - Freemasonry's Newest Recruits, Weeping Over a Gavel, HIS-Story not YOUR-Story, Lucifer in the Lodge - Not Satan, "Everyone Has Their Price", Clawing Their Way to the Top, --"The First Global Revolution" by Alexander King and Bertrand Schneider (Club of Rome)-- Overseas Economic Corporation for Development, Think-Tanks, Foundations, "Raising Public Consciousness" - Shaping and Crafting, "Illumined Ones" to Guide Us - Social Darwinism, HAARP Waves - Aerial Spraying - EVIDENCE IS ABOVE YOUR HEAD, Bringing Public into Sheep-Pens of City Slums - Spring Water from Plastic Bottles - Fluoride in Toothpaste - Giving Waste to Sheeple - Xenoestrogen - Altering Hormonal Levels, French Revolution - Planned Society - Eliminating Certain Aristocracy and Poor, H.G. Wells - Upset by "Breeders" - Fabian Society and "Superior Genes", Allocation of Credits by Government - No Private Property, Cell-Phone Chatter - Training for Brain-Chip - Getting Interconnected by Thought - You Will be Programmed to Serve Your Betters, (Song: "Dirty Old Town" by The Dubliners ) *Dialogue Copyrighted Alan Watt - May 10, 2007 (Exempting Music and Literary Quotes)