Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming | Bjørn Lomborg

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming | Bjørn Lomborg | Putting Things in Perspective

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Cool It: The Skept...

	Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming Bjørn Lomborg Knopf, 2007 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 96 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A groundbreaking book that transforms the debate about global warming by offering a fresh perspective based on human needs as well as environmental concerns.

Bjorn Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions now being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, are often based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions, and may very well have little impact on the world?s temperature for hundreds of years. Rather than starting with the most radical procedures, Lomborg argues that we should first focus our resources on more immediate concerns, such as fighting malaria and HIV/AIDS and assuring and maintaining a safe, fresh water supply?which can be addressed at a fraction of the cost and save millions of lives within our lifetime. He asks why the debate over climate change has stifled rational dialogue and killed meaningful dissent.

Lomborg presents us with a second generation of thinking on global warming that believes panic is neither warranted nor a constructive place from which to deal with any of humanity?s problems, not just global warming. Cool It promises to be one of the most talked about and influential books of our time.

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Government is the solution !

With the financial system collapsing due to deregulation, greed and irrational hubris, this short book is the latest fad for all who believe government is a problem, not the solution.

Granted, Lomberg admits, "humanity has caused a substantial rise in atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels over the past centuries, thereby contributing to global warming."

His solution? Let's cure AIDs, malaria, hunger and poverty first. Dealing with what we know rather than facing unknown unknowns is a noble approach that has motivated mankind for centuries. When people did not know how to cure smallpox, to cite an example, the alternative was to make the king and nobles uselessly rich and let most peasants live without clean water, sewage disposal and other basic necessities. The impact of global warming is as unknown today as was the cause of smallpox two centuries ago.

Today we need a president in the style of Abraham Lincoln who believed government can do things collectively that people cannot do individually. He was far more rational than modern fools who say taxes are only a form of "greed" and the true key to a better community is personal riches grabbed by any means possible.

Keeping these two ideas in mind, this book is a good analysis of the global warming debate. It is concise (164 pages of text, the rest is notes and sources), beautifully intelligent, blue skies clear and skeptical. No great idea should exist without rigorous challenge, questioning and alternatives. Think of the impact had some "Lomborg" 25 years ago offered similar questions about Reagan's rush to financial deregulation.

Lomborg doesn't deny global warming (the t-shirt mentality says "Al Gore didn't invent the Internet; he did invent Global Warming"). Instead, he suggests cost effective solutions such as carbon dioxide taxes. He'll properly infuriate climate change doers, doubters, deniers and dimbulbs.

Consider: What if Henry Ford was as concerned about pollution as he was about inventing the Model T and the moving assembly line? Or, what if horses were still the favoured means of transport for goods and people? A brilliant innovation may create a problem, but every solution must be dealt with in the context of the problem it solved.

Consider: Bottled water is sold because some people fear "polluted" municipal water. But, what if today's "natural" water was similar to that of 200 years ago when it might contain smallpox (instead of chlorine?) and other bacteria?

Consider: Lomborg raises a string of relevant issues that every intelligent person should consider before plunging into any climate change debate. All in all, this is a fine introduction to pollution, climate change, hype, hysteria and hope.

Consider: As with the financial industry, government is a solution and not the problem.

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Putting Things in Perspective

This book puts the current global warming crisis in perspective. While the author admits that global warming is a problem and that solutions should be thoughtfully considered and implemented across the world, the problem is not as imminent or destructive as some would have us believe. Moreover, the author continues, the real affects of global warming may still not be felt for many years. Meanwhile, there are more pressing issues that the world is dealing with and can be fixed by humanity. Global resources should be spent in the areas that we can make a difference in and that affect us today, such as food and water shortages, disease, poverty, energy consumption, population growth and infrastructure development. These are problems that are solvable, but can only be fixed by us if we work together. If the above are not addressed and truly resolved by our generation, it really won't matter if the ocean rises a few centimeters worldwide fifty years from now, as then too, the world may have bigger problems to worry about.

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An incredibly important book

Well researched and thoughtful. Bjorn Lomborg extracts the issue of global climate change policy from the layers of emotionalism and hysteria in which it is usually wrapped with the skill and precision of a surgeon. In cool, measured logical steps on the basis of well-established research, he elegantly illustrates how best to craft a climate change policy for the real world.

Cool it, the Sceptical Environmentalist's guide to Global Warming

I think this book by Prof. Lundberg is quite well written. I enjoyed reading it. He admits that, yes, there is global warming, but no, unlike the global universal consensus, spouted by Al Gore and his acolytes (and not open to discussion) there is ample evidence that this may be a natural phenomenon. Not only that, there may be a positive aspect to global warming, which the doomsday predictors conveniently never mention.
I am glad I purchased this book, and would like to recommend it to anyone who has not succumbed to Gore's siren song: "do you wish to be known as one of those who made life for your children and grandchildren impossible".

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A much welcome, balanced and clear-headed argument

This book is excellent in that it is neither written from the point of view of an alarmist nor of a denier. This middle ground is sadly lacking from the climate change debate in this day and age. Non-economists might find the constant cost-benefit analysis somewhat hard to fathom, but there are very few hard-to-understand parts.

Obviously, the science used to justify Lomborg's claims have, and will continue to be, challenged. Nevertheless, it is useful just to point out the danger of climate change hysteria that predominates the media.

My only problem with this book is the disproportionately large section at the back of the book denoted to notes. While this is necessary, it means the book is substantially shorter than it appears. I enjoyed the book and a little disappointed that so much of it is bibliography. But I still highly recommend it.

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