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 | Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor
Author: Roy Spencer
Publisher: Encounter Books
Binding: Hardcover
Released: 2008-03-27
Sales Rank: 303
ISBN: 1594032106
Edition:
Cover
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 2008-07-23 - Good Science Is Impossible Once Politics Takes Hold
James Hansen, a climate scientist at NASA, where the author of this book also worked in climate science, famously told a Congressional committee that global warming skeptics should be charged with crimes against humanity. I know nothing about the legal merits of such a charge, but it's clear that Dr. Hansen has much too much emotional investment in a particular viewpoint to ever be capable of doing unbiased science in the field. Good science is impossible where emotions rule. Perhaps Dr. Hansen had Dr. Spenser specifically in mind when he made that statement, and one can only imagine the cross agency resentments that must of boiled along for years, Dr. Hansen screaming incessantly about global warming to whatever reporters would listen and Dr. Spenser calmly dismissing it as a crisis problem, not nearly as bad as Hansen was saying according to Spenser's satellite data. The whole specter of two senior scientists in a field in the same agency charged with doing essentially the same thing -- measuring global temperatures --who held very different views of a key question ought to put a stake right through the heart of the idea that there is any scientific consensus on global warming.
Dr. Spenser does a good job of explaining how politics and human nature work to produce and sustain global warming hysteria. I would have preferred that he spend some time taking the government controlled system of research funding to task for its role in creating this monster. Far from just providing scientists with a meal ticket, this hysteria threatens to destroy our economic well being with oppressive environmental regulation. Perhaps it's time that the environmentalist bureaucracy is charged with crimes against humanity for attempting to appropriate resources needed to address real problems in effective ways. The NASA bureaucracy wants to take over the whole world, it would seem, or at least share it with the UN climate agency.
In any case, as one might surmise, the book spends considerable time where the action really is -- not in science but in politics. The science is not difficult to summarize briefly: we just don't know about future climate and we have no reliable way to predict it. What's harder to explain is how this state of affairs translates to the political situation we find ourselves in, and Spenser does a fine job of explaining that in a tone of detached bemusement, reassuring us that this is the fellow unbiased enough to give us the straight scoop.
2008-07-20 - A Climatologist's View on Global Warming Hysteria
Endorsed by both MIT Climate Scientist Richard Lindzen and laissez-faire economist Walter E. Williams, this book is another great addition to the growing number of books that debunking the catastrophic anthropogenic global warming hysteria. This book is *not* written by a conservative who denies the existence of global warming for political convenience.
I think the main attributes of this book that make it worth reading in addition to other leading books on this topic (e.g., Bjorn Lomborg's books and the Singer-Avery book) are as follows:
* The author is a climatologist who has included two, clearly written, chapters on how the weather works.
* The author values laissez-faire economics. Specifically, he cites his appreciation for the ideas of Fredrich Hayek and Julian Simon on numerous occasions.
* This is one of the most recent books. This is especially important, since the view that solar activity is largely the driving force behind climate change is relatively new, and is not discussed in several relatively recent books such as Bjorn Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist.
I highly recommend this book to those who value laissez-faire economics and want a relatively quick, but informative read to separate the facts from fiction in the ongoing global warming debate. Be warned that the author has spliced jokes throughout this book. Although some might find this sophomoric, I perceived that this was not too overdone.
2008-07-16 - Hoping more would read...
It troubles me that fellow educators will only smile condescendingly at your invitation to have them watch a video, show them what you're reading. Especially say science teachers. In my own field, if someone handed me a book that might challenge some grand notion, or present some new idea ...I would feel some obligation (if I haven't read much from that position already) to become acquainted with what the other views or new idea is saying. What has become of education that no longer obligates itself so? How can we be so disinterested in our own areas of study? The free exchange of ideas stops with prejudice and ego, and so does arriving at a balance of knowing truth.
This is an excellent book that should get into as many hands as possible. I've seen the video, "The Great Global Warming Swindle" and Spencer's book brings a balance to what scientists are saying in that video as well. Intriguing to say the least to come to a better layman's understanding of the complex intricacies of what makes weather, how the earth like a living system compensates. The statistic alone of man adding one molecule of CO2 to every 100,000 molecules of air every five years...plus the complexities of a full understanding of climatology sure puts it clear to see how this has become a faith issue, with a religious fervor...that is very agenda driven, and for something other than truth! Considering politicians are deciding where YOUR tax dollars and future is heading under the guise of the Global Warming mantra, I highly recommend this book!!!
2008-07-14 - Funny and easy-to-understand truth about climate and economics
Easy to read and understand terms about climatology and economics (with a twist of humor.) I learned more about these subjects in this short book than I did in college. I would recommend this book to anyone who desires to know how the climate really works and how global warming hysteria policies are causing more damage to humanity than so-called global warming is.
2008-07-13 - Cutting through the hype of global warming hysteria
I cannot recommend this book more highly. It is well written, as entertaining as may be considering it is a serious work, highly informative, and finally, quite persuasive. The objects of that persuasion are primarily twofold.
First, Spencer does not argue that anthropogenic global warming is not currently occurring, but rather that climatologic science can not at its current stage of development support any of the global warming alarmists' projections. The analysis here is quite clear and readily accessible to the non scientist. This scientific uncertainty being the case, the current alarmism and policy prescriptions represent a misallocation of creative and fiscal resources to pseudo problems while real problems go unaddressed or even undetected.
Second, the author argues that even if the problem of anthropogenic global warming is real, currently proposed solutions (like Kyoto) either do nothing, or by fettering the potential of the free market and its attendant creativity make matters worse. Put another way, since it is likely that the advanced industrial nations which currently pour billions of public and private money into alternative energy research are going to be the ones to find and perfect alternatives, policies which slow those economies will extend the time it takes to fully develop non-carbon based energy options.
Finally, I would point out that I usually read the negative reviews of books in order to possibly glean points of view that merit consideration. It is not appropriate in a review to refute other reviews, though with the negatives for this book it could easily be done on a point by point basis. Let me simply say that the negative reviews should dissuade one neither from reading the book, nor giving serious weight to it's content.
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