An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming (Hardcover)

~ Nigel Lawson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former British energy secretary and chancellor of the exchequer Lawson succinctly lambastes global warming hysteria in this slim book. To Lawson, save the planet is the most ludicrous slogan ever coined; Al Gore's tendentious documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, is a fanciful cherry-picking of phenomena illustrating a predetermined alarmist narrative; and the new religion of environmentalism contains a grain of truth—and a mountain of nonsense. Lawson's tone is occasionally shrill, but his insights are keen and refreshingly iconoclastic. He argues that green protectionism, the movement to restrict importing produce because of the incurred food miles, damages the global economy more than global warming ever could, and the would-be saviours of the planet are, in practice, the enemies of poverty reduction in the developing world. Lawson reserves his deepest contempt for the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, co-winner with Gore of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which he dubs an unethical, politically correct pressure group whose most recent report misrepresents the reality of man-made greenhouse gas emissions and fails to embrace the potential of humans to adapt to climate change. The conservative (and Conservative) author's contrarian synthesis of political thinking and economic analysis is notably well argued and well written—and sure to raise the hackles of those on the other side of the issue. (May)
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Review

'Only one senior political figure in Britain has dared stand apart from [the] stifling orthodoxy: Nigel Lawson' - The Telegraph. 'Elegantly written, thorough, entertaining and, above all, convincing' - The Financial Times. 'Bombarded with the zealous certainties of those deaf to reasoned argument ... it is intensely refreshing to find in Nigel Lawson someone who, without claiming to have all the answers, is at least brave enough to ask eminently sensible questions' - The Spectator. 'Along with the polemics, he makes some sensible points' - The Guardian. 'This is a fascinating tome, the best exposition of the sceptical view on global warming that I have yet to come across' - Literary Review. 'His insights are keen and refreshingly iconoclastic ... well argued and well written' - Publishers Weekly. 'Lawson slices through the layers of pseudo-scientific hype, anti-American prejudice, green evangelism and rampant ecomania to expose the scientific realities, the political issues, the economic options and the ethical considerations that really matter' - Antony Jay, creator of "Yes Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister". --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover (May 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590200845
• ISBN-13: 978-1590200841
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #167,602 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A reasoned approach, June 19, 2008

By	B. Boselli - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This short book is more "telling" in its review of the global warming/climate change controversy than the many tomes and movies that have preceded it. The author looks at all sides of the issue, including the dissenters who cannot get their work published. He is willing to assume the "what if" scenario that accepts the global warming predictions and then proceeds to analyze just what the reasonable consequences of such warming would be, and how mankind would adapt and handle it. With a little bit of thought and reason, as opposed to political motivation and the panic approach, the author removes much of the doomsday alarmism from the issue. A must read for anyone wanting to explore the entire issue, rather than just the closed minded "consensus" we are all told to accept.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Ph.D in Global Warming, June 28, 2008

By	Ted Baiamonte (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This book is an extremely rational look at global warming that ultimately asks the reader, although not explicitly, to consider why human-kind still has a pronounced, if not suicidal, collectivist, and socialistic instinct when in all of human history only freedom has produced salutatory results. As the world socialistically unites around global warming here is the heart of Nigel Lawson's thoroughly footnoted and brilliant argument. It should encourage you to read the book, and then go on to read more about this incredible issue that so threatens the capacity for reason which we have so painstakingly developed over the centuries.

1) "The 21st century standstill [ 8 years of temperature decline], which has occurred at a time when global CO2 emissions have been rising faster than ever, is something that the conventional wisdom, and the computer models on which it relies, completely failed to predict." (page 6)

2) "They [The Hadley Centre] now forecast that, after an unpredicted, almost decade-long lull global warming will resume in 2009 or thereabouts". ( page 7)

3) "For the United States, only three of the last twelve years emerge as among the warmest since records began; and the warmest year of all was 1934." (page 9)

4) "two thirds of the Green house effect.... is water vapor....Rather a long way behind is carbon dioxide the second most important greenhouse gas." (Page 10)

5) "....the science of clouds, which is clearly critical (not the least because water vapor [the major component], as we have seen, is far and away the most important contributor to greenhouse gases is one of the least understood aspects of climate science." (page 12)

6) ...the mediaeval warm period, a benign time when temperatures were probably at least as high, if not higher than they are today ....during the Roman period, it was probably even warmer....vineyards existed as far north as Northeastern England." [where they do not exist today] (page 16)

7) "........the Greenland ice sheet appears to be melting, while at its centre, the ice is thickening. ...all to easy for Al Gore to cherry-pick local phenomena which best illustrate their [his] predetermined alarmist global narrative". ( page 19)

8) " .....making a total increase of some 1.3 F [a prediction that is hardly alarming] over the [entire] 20th century as a whole. (page 10).

9) "...is it really plausible that there is an ideal average world temperature, which by some small departures in either direction would spell disaster? The average annual temperature is...41 degrees F in Helsinki... in Singapore.... 81 degrees F. Man can successfully live with that [ a 40 degree F difference]."

10) ".....polar bears, which have been around for millennia, during which there is ample evidence that polar temperatures have varied considerably" (page 30).

11) "Sea levels have, in fact been rising very gradually for as long as records exist, and there is little sign of any acceleration so far. .....may have been less in second half of 20th century than first." (page 31)

12) "to assess the cost of climate change [assuming climate change] in the absence of adaptation is about as sensible as assessing the risk of catching pneumonia in London on the assumption that we all go out and about in the cold and the rain in our bathing costumes. Yet to a considerable extent that is just what the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change) does." (page 39)

13) "The Dutch managed [sea level rise] even with the technology of the 16th century."( page 42)

14) Seven out of 10 [of the worst hurricanes] occurred before 1975." (Page 50)

15) "...the overwhelming land-borne mass of polar ice [that could effect sea levels] ..is over Antarctica, not Greenland in the North....where the ice sheet is growing" (page 51).

16) "the Gulf Stream [ the ocean conveyer of warm water that Al Gore says may freeze England if interrupted by warming]...is largely a surface current, and thus a wind driven phenomena..[not related to warming]." (page 52)

17) "China's....annual increase [in emission will] .... far exceed the UK's total annual emissions." [China will] increase its power-generating capacity each year by roughly the equivalent of Britain's total capacity." (page 55)

18) "On the one hand you [the world] increase the production in China, and on the other you criticize China on the emission reduction issue, so it is unfair."......"targets should be in terms not of greenhouse gas production but in terms of gas consumption." (page 56)

19) "It was calculated at the time that if every signatory ratified Kyoto and subsequently met its emission target, [none of the signatories actually did meet their targets] the world's temperature by 2100 would be 0.1C/0.2F less than would otherwise be the case - a trivial amount". ( Page 59)

20) "According to the Hadley Center, only by a reduction of about 70% [nearly impossible] in [global] carbon dioxide emissions would we be able to stabilize its concentration in the atmosphere," ( page 65)

21) "...indeed in 2007 China suspended its production of ethanol for this reason..[ higher food costs, consumes more energy than produces, uses land and rain forests]. ( page 68)

22) "....cap and trade is arbitrary and distortionary covering some admissions and not others....anti competitive, since permits are issued to existing emitters, and not new entrants...scores badly on transparency.. lends itself to lobbying, corruption and abuse." ( page 74)

23) "...India and China have made billions by building factories whose primary purpose is to produce greenhouse gases, so that carbon traders in the rich world will pay to clean them up." ( page 76).

24 ".. [A largely gov't and bureaucracy free carbon tax such as an increase in the gasoline tax, not cap and trade] ..is the only practical means of discovering how expensive carbon needs to be in order to stimulate the changed behavior necessary to stabilize emissions...if that is the objective."

25) ..." saviors of the planet [climate warriors] are, in practice, the enemies of poverty reduction in the developing world. [due to the tremendous costs] (Page 106)

26) "With the collapse of Marxism, those who dislike capitalism..and the United States... have been obliged to find a new creed. For many of them, green is the new red." ( page 101)

27) "In primitive societies it was customary for extreme weather events to be explained as punishment from the gods for the sins of the people," ( page 102)

26) "Capitalist rationality does not do away with sub-or super-rational impulses. It merely makes them get out of hand by removing the restraint of sacred or semi-sacred tradition." (Page 104). also printed to TheIntellectual Republican, www.thedumbdemocrat.blogspot.com, Ted Baiamonte

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best I've read, June 23, 2008

By	W. T. Gross "Bill Gross" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've read a lot about Global Warming and the human contributions thereto. This is the best treatment on the subject that I've seen. It combines a reasonable review of the science involved, including attribution, and the politics being spent by governments world wide. The author is uniquely qualified to challenge the now popularly held opinions.