[.uk] Global Warming and Other Eco Myths: How the ... (ISBN 0761536604)

October 23, 2007 in San Diego:
As I write this review, I'm watching TV coverage of a fire -- 13 fires actually -- that has destroyed already more than 1000 homes in Southern California, killed at least two and severely burned dozens more, and destroyed well over 100,000 acres of landscape. The fire has been fueled and spread by Santa Ana winds of up to 100 miles per hour. The whole event is precisely what the environmentalists and climatologists, demonized by this fraudulent book, would predict and have predicted. Wake up, ideologues! Don't burn your copies of Ayn Rand and Ann Coulter; that would merely add to the carbon load, which by the way has just been measured by Australian climatologists as HIGHER than expected right now, at the same time that the ability of the ocean to dissolve and keep CO2 in solution is testing LOWER than expected. There is no eco-myth. There is only self-serving petro-fraud and libertarian tomfoolery. At this point, denying the probable consequences of rapid anthropogenic climate change is an act of social irresponsibility verging on a crime against humanity, especially the humanity fo our children. There is little in this book that hasn't been covered in similar manifestos of denial, such as the PIGuide to Global Warming. Don't be deceived; this is a political tract, not a book of balanced science. However, if you want to approach the problem reasonably, you might take a look at "Kicking the Carbon Habit" by William Sweet, or "Global Warming: a Very Short Introduction" by Mark Maslin.

Discredited by its own Editor:
The book's editor, Ronald Bailey, came out on Sept 22, 2006 in ReasonOnline to explain that the global warming conclusions in his own book are false. According to Mr. Bailey: "In 2002 came Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths (Prima Publishing). The global warming contributor was University of Alabama at Huntsville climatologist John Christy.... In August 2005, Science magazine published \ofindings\c that Christy and Spencer had failed to take proper account of satellite drift, which produced a spurious cooling trend to their dataset.... "On the day that the studies were released I wrote a column for Reason in which I declared that my skepticism of man-made global warming was at an end." Rather than debunking eco-myths, this book perpetuates them. Ouch.

Great source of facts to understand global warming issue:
This is an esssential book to uncover the facts behind the validity of the Global warming concerns and possible impact of humans on this possible effect. It is an essential if you care about the facts. This is not a book for those who embrace the religion of Secular Humanism, as they will not want to encounter any facts that might conflict with their pre-determined religious beliefs. If you want your concerns and sacrifices to be aligned with any sort of fact and reality, you must read this to round out your education, and off-set the distortions of a media that have decided, with no scientific knowledge, that this religion is true and must be defended against all facts. Read it and decide for yourself, if you can think independently.

Global Warming for the uneducated:
I think books like this are dangerous and to those who insist we ignore global warming problems I just want to ask you to answer this one question: What if we continue to ignore this crisis and you are wrong. What then ???? If we do indeed choose to continue to ignore these issues and you happen to be wrong then it will be too late to do anything about them. As a result we all need to do our part and play the safe side which is to assume there is a big global warming problem and do what we can to protect the environment at any cost as we only have one environment people and noone should have the power to dictate that we ignore this crisis.

An anthology worth picking up:
The good part about anthologies is that they tend to cover more ground than an author normally would on his/her own. Such serves the reader well. "Global Warming and Other Eco-myths" does cover much ground in the realm of "fierce ecological advocacy," handling topics on population, natural resources, water, industrial products, and of course, global warming. There are three chapters on general policy-philosophy which go along with topic-specific chapters. The themes which run through all parts of the book may roughly be summarized as: 1. Strident environmentalism needs to be braked with logical thinking and a truthful look at actual data; 2. Too many "hot" environmental topics of the past have been misunderstood at best, intentionally misleading at worst; 3. Human beings are not Earth's pests; and 4. Human brains are the most powerful force for solving these largely technological problems discussed in the book. No reader will agree with everything in this work. In fact Ron Bailey, the editor, has since this book's publication changed much of his mind on the global warming part! \ohttp://www.reason.com/news/show/126851.html\c For sure it is worth your picking up this book. This reviewer purchased a copy for reference. Who know? In a decade and one-half, let's see how much of this pans out -- results are always the best judge!