Customer Reviews

Beating the Heat Why and How We Must Combat Global Warming

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

John Berger writes about this subject with both enthusiasm and balance, giving the reader (particularly the layman) an overview of how we got to where we are in the global warming crisis and what can be done about it. There's even a handy section listing resources for taking action. The arguments put forward are well supported.

This book will teach you everything you need to know about global warming. I am a businessperson, not a scientist, and I wasn't lost in technical oblivion. Berger makes a convincing case for taking prompt action to combat global warming. His chapter on the various sources of clean energy was particularly interesting. He also outlined steps that policy makers can take to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. I found this book to be very well researched, entertaining, and easy to understand.

The reason I love this book is that it is over 5 years old. Why? Because we can point back to it and say, "The more extreme events we are seeing now more than ever in our history were predicted." Yes, this book lays out that storms would get stronger and more frequent due to warming (2004 and 2005 testify to that). It also describes that wildfires and floods are supposed to get more frequent and serious in certain areas (and those events have also begun to transpire).

With Shell and BP executives now admitting that global warming is real, is serious, and needs to be dealt with, people need to take this seriously! Why would these multi-billion dollar companies go out against carbon emissions when that is their cash crop, unless they had a really good moral reason to?

Note that the two one star reviewers didn't believe in global warming; note also that they were written 5 years ago. It is a scientific consensus, with little opposition even by industry, that global warming is actually occurring due to human activity. I'm sure each of the reviewers below has changed their mind (assuming they actually read the book and watch/read the news).

That being said, the predictions today for the temperature changes in the next 100 years are more extreme than they were when this book was written, and likely more accurate because more accurate models have been developed. Regardless, this book explains enough for anyone's purpose to get them to act.

If not this book, read some book on global warming. Read the news and actually research this. It may take a lot of effort, but the importance of the issue demands that. A little sidenote...

Making the necessary changes can actually SAVE YOU MONEY (you reduce energy waste, you save a lot of money on your energy bill). The honest truth is, the average American home can reduce its energy bill by over 30% by buying energy efficient appliances and making appropriate and reasonable changes (with no change in lifestyle habits). Not only this, but the energy savings MORE THAN MAKE UP FOR THE INITIAL COST OVER TIME OF THE ENERGY EFFICIENT PRODUCTS. (For example, replacing a 15 y.o. fridge can save $60/year in energy costs.) Please look into energy efficiency and make an effort to help reduce CO2 emissions while saving yourself some moola at the same time. If you can put in a little money and have the desire to, you can also buy renewable energy from your energy provider (available in many areas). [...] Most places have green energy for a reasonable premium (some areas are not so reasonable, at least at the time of this writing).

As usual this book gives half baked ideas to the public without considering the damages. For instance, they overlook the reason that recycled materials gennerally cost more than non-recycled materials (more energy is spent developing them than developing items from raw materials). The book is a classic proponent of emperical science wherein such things as "Humans are on the earth and it's getting warmer, so it must be humans" are passed as scientific rigor. No information is provided to explain why earth's history has endured (and even flourished within) temperatures above present levels, with C02 levels far beyond our current levels by 10-20%- and why earth's human and other populations flourished during these times, even settling the now mostly inhospitable Greenland. The writing style of the book was compelling, to the point that it takes a wary reader to realize that he/she is being fed sugar-coated statistics that tell only half the story. I came to this book expecting it to give me answers to the above questions I had in my own search for the truth. The book ignores this and instead only gives the common arguments that have repeatedly been shoved down our throats before. Blech.

The book may be well written, it may be interesting, but as there is no global warming, it is a piece of fiction.

I never cease to be amazed why so many people seem to have the need to believe in some imanent doom. Maybe they believe in incipient disaster because it gives them the chance to order people about. I suggest that we all ignore the enviro-ninnies and go on living happy lives, free from the tension and pressure that these silly people foist upon us in the mistaken belief that they are helping us, whilst in truth they are really helping themselves.