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Title: Global Warming and Other Eco Myths: How the Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death by Ronald Bailey, Ronald Bailey, Competitive Enterprise Institute ISBN: 0-7615-3660-4 Publisher: Prima Lifestyles Pub. Date: 24 September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.96 (25 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: I actually READ the book!
Comment: Having actually read the book, unlike most of the reviewers in this list that have not cracked its covers or turned a single page, I think that my review should carry some weight.
First, global warming is almost certainly due to macroenvironmental factors that are not due to human activity. This is widely documented from everything from studies of glacial gase entrapment to ocean sediments.
Second, wide variations in climatic conditions are the NORM. Thus the current period of global warming, that has continued since the Little Ice Age several hundreds years ago (and centuries before CO2 emissions from human activity were a factor) can not be thought of as a radical departure from normal climatic change.
Third, Carl Sagan wrote of a "baloney detector" that we should use when evaluating science. One of the surest signs of baloney is the "reducto ad hominum" argument. True, "only" two PHDs were involved in this book (there are countless books by a SINGLE PHD that are not attacked in this manner) but that is not the fault of the book. Also true, the book is sponsored by a pro-development group, but there are countless books by environmental groups that are not debased solely by that connection. Finally, most of the science is fully footnoted and you are able to check their conclusions. This is not true of most of the environmental movements polemics.
On the whole the book is readable and does not insult a laymans intelligence. The sources and bibliography are valuable for those that wish to take an honest inquiry further.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Good Response from the 'Other Side'
Comment: I have an open mind about all the subjects dealt with in this book and therefore found reading it very worthwile. Yes, the authors are from what one could call the 'other side' as they make no bones about directly attacking what the authors call 'ideological environmentalism'. However, the book is well written given the number of authors involved and clearly presents their arguments and information.
The book covers such topics as global warming, sustainable development, biotechnology, chemicals/pollutants and the environment, population, et. al. that should be of interest to everyone.
The strength of the book is the attempt to bring scientific research and data to bear on these important and sensitive issues and the policies that exist or that have been promoted to deal with them. This approach is very much needed and the authors should be commended for their work, regardless of where you might stand on any of the issues. We need reasoned debate.
The authors do engage in some of their own political poking at those they don't agree with and do resort to the straw man approach using 40 year old books and articles as the straw man and they do also use statistics in ways ranging from acceptable to somewhat dubious that present their case in the strongest possible light. They do ignore certain issues such as biodiversity where positive data (their obvious preference) is not available to support their strong optimism that markets and science have and will benefit humanity and solve all its problems. However, this political and economic perspective is to be expected from the American Enterprise Institute and is not presented in a too polemical tone.
Overall this book is comprehensive in its coverage, informative, well referenced and thought provoking, and therefore I can highly recommend it for those seriously and dispassionately interested in understanding these issues better.
I do not agree with certain of their analyses or use of statistics or all of their underlying philosophy but I commend them again for providing a sane and reasoned book that gives me the opportunity to study, analyse, raise questions, search references and become better informed.
Lets not shoot all the messengers or we can't discuss anything serious anymore.
Rating: 3
Summary: Short-sighted
Comment: Global warming is the subject in only one of the twelve chapters in this book. Other chapters are on pesticides, water wars, bioengineering, the concept of sustainable (or "sustained") development, crop yields, etc. The spirit of the book can perhaps be taken from Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug, who wrote the chapter entitled, "Feeding a World of 10 Billion People: The Miracle Ahead."
The "Miracle Ahead" in Borlaug's title and his enthusiasm for feeding ten billion people are typical of the optimistic tone throughout. I would prefer that we not have ten billion people to feed, but that is another argument based on my belief that we should leave room for substantial agrarian and wild spaces on the planet and that we should keep alive in their natural habitats as many of our fellow creatures as is reasonably possible, and that such resources are of inestimable value. The authors of this book are not much concerned with life other than as it relates to the short-term economic welfare of the human species.
This brings us to the question, what are they concerned with? Why are they arguing so vehemently against almost any sort of restraint on economic growth? Why are they not concerned about how many humans may occupy the planet? The answer: they know that poor and disadvantaged humans are needed to work at subsistence wages in order that others (themselves, their friends, and their children) may enjoy a high standard of living. One of the most important environmental trends during the last century NOT noted in this book is the movement of poor people from less developed countries to Europe and the United States. These people gladly leave the lands of their births, many crossing borders illegally, to take on the lowest paying jobs in our economies. Without these eager workers we would all be less well off.
Consequently the authors want to continue to be able to exploit not only the environment to the fullest, they want to be able to exploit a ready supply of human labor as well. This is why they do not argue against the dangers of overpopulation and belittle those that do. They want a substantial number of poor people in the world.
But philosophic and moral issues aside, is global warming an "eco-myth"?
First, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased since the levels were first measured, especially during the last century. Second, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas; that is, it allows the sun's heat to penetrate to the surface of the planet but prevents heat from escaping. Third, the overall temperature of the planet has indeed risen over the last century with some of the hottest years on record occurring in the last decade or so. All of this is indisputable.
However, what is argued in this book is that, one, it is impossible to prove that increased CO2 admissions are causing the warming; two, it was warmer, much warmer earlier in the earth's history; and three, it is not clear that this warming is something to be concerned about. The authors argue further that plant life loves having more carbon dioxide. Indeed, this belief is why carbon dioxide levels are not included in the graphs showing pollution levels in the air. The authors have simply decided that CO2 is not a pollutant. Of course this is contrary to common sense and to the long held dictum referred to by contributor Angela Logomasini in her chapter on "Chemical Warfare" that "the dose makes the poison." (p. 159) Plants do indeed like carbon dioxide but researchers have found that at too high a dose, even plants begin to suffer from too much CO2.
It may well be that the increase in CO2 levels is not the reason the earth is getting warmer; it may be just a coincidence or a temporary anomaly. However--and this is really the crux of the matter ignored by the authors--what if they are wrong? What if the most likely argument, that increased CO2 levels produced by a growing human population, ARE causing or contributing mightily to global warming? And what if it gets worse? The really scary thing about global warming is that we may pass over the point of no return without knowing it. A full-blown, runaway greenhouse effect would make nuclear winter look like a walk in the park. Look what happened to Venus, where on any spring day (or winter day for that matter) the surface is hot enough to melt lead. Could that happen here? The real and direct answer to that question is: we don't know.
Another underlying argument is the idea that human ingenuity is limitless and that whatever problems do develop, our creativity will solve them. This pollyannaish stance, this matter of faith, really, is not compatible with the rigorous scientific discipline to which the authors aspire.
The arguments against the hysteria about bioengineering, about how prognosticators were wrong in the past (Paul Ehrlich, etc.), about how wondrous has been our ability to grow food faster than babies, etc. are all well taken. Even the argument that natural resources have become cheaper is true, but that is because a great leap in technological skills coincided with vast areas of the planet being available for exploitation. For our children and grandchildren, who will probably have an even more advanced technology, there will be unfortunately precious few unspoiled lands on which to use that technology.
The argument that the past is a guide to the future, held here as an immutable law, is a respectable one, but is not anything near infallible. A contrary argument, that nothing is ever the same, that what applied as truth for hunter and gatherer, and for agrarian societies, may not be true for advanced technological societies, is perhaps a better guide.
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Title: The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World by Bjorn Lomborg ISBN: 0521010683 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 30 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Global Warming in a Politically Correct Climate : How Truth Became Controversial by M. Mihkel Mathiesen ISBN: 0595140661 Publisher: Writers Club Press Pub. Date: 15 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Satanic Gases by Patrick J. Michaels, Robert C. Balling ISBN: 1882577922 Publisher: Cato Inst Pub. Date: 15 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists by Joel Best ISBN: 0520219783 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 07 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Junk Science Judo: Self-Defense Against Health Scares & Scams by Steven J. Milloy ISBN: 1930865120 Publisher: Cato Inst Pub. Date: September, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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