The film “Merchants of Doubt” will be presented by Coastal Senior College Events Committee on Friday, Dec. 11 at 1:30 p.m. in Skidompha Library’s Porter Room in Damariscotta.

The film is based on the book of the same title by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, who explain how a loose–knit group of high-level scientists, with extensive political connections, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades on a number of issues, including the harms of tobacco, acid rain, the ozone hole, global warming, and DDT.

Oreskes is one of the world’s leading historians of science, professor of history and science studies at the University of California, San Diego, and adjunct professor of geosciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Conway is an historian of science and technology currently employed at the California Institute of Technology. He studies and documents the history of space exploration and examines the intersections of space science, earth science, and technological change.

The film will follow with a discussion led by Professor Bruce L. Rockwood, who has taught environmental law and ethics for Coastal Senior College. For further information, contact him at clan.rockwood@gmail.com.