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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely tedious but informative., July 15, 2008
I struggle trying to decide what to write about this book. On the one hand, large portions of it are extremely tedious to get through and seem like overkill. On the other hand, a few parts are some of the best writing on the global warming issue I have read recently. The book begins with a section that covers about the first half, which is basically an almost blow-by-blow accounting of all sorts of censorship, editing, distortion, and intimidation by political appointees in NASA. I suspect many people will give up on this book before finishing this part. I think it is too long and detailed. Perhaps more summary with a few well-placed examples would have sufficed. Around the middle of the book, the tone changes greatly, and there is much more coverage of Hansen's actual work through the years and what it showed about global warming. In this section Hansen is depicted as a careful scientist who basically got it right 30 years ago and has been getting better since. This section contains some of the best descriptions of how real-world data and modeling fit the picture, and why global warming deniers are way off base. Finally, towards the end of the book emphasis shifts to Hansen's more recent advocacy in favor of doing something, and (the author's)dire predictions for what's in store if we don't. Curiously, the descriptions of how much Hansen has been doing found at the end of the book seem a little out of synch with the claims of censorship and muzzling found at the beginning of the book.
In the second half of the book, Bowen seems to rely on the work of Journalist Ross Gelbspan, who shares an interest in how political forces have tried to distort or derail the science of global warming, and some of the material from his own previous book on the study of ice.
I think the following extremely important points can be gleaned from the book:
1) Hansen is a very meticulous scientist who shys away from political involvement or spectacular claims in public, in spite of how is he generally characterized by those hoping to smear him.
2) Hansen is perhaps the most important global warming researcher in the US, and has an incredible 30+ year record of solid work and correct predictions or views on things.
3) We have essentially lost many years of attacking the problem of global warming by allowing short-term corporate interests to dictate a policy that puts profit above long-term stability of the environment.
4) There is overwhelming and basically unassailable evidence of what is going on, and a strong basis for solid predictions of what could happen.
I will conclude by suggesting this book, while being very important in some aspects could have been much better in many ways. It can't decide if it's a biography on Dr. Hansen, an investigative report on Bush administration attempts to stymie science, or a scientific wake-up call on global warming. I give it three stars because it's so hard to get through the first half. However, I do suggest that anyone interested in this topic give it a try.
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16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Brilliant Examination of Bush Administration Scientific Censorship At NASA, March 8, 2008
The most important scientific issue confronting our fellow Americans, and indeed, all of humanity, is global warming. On a warm, humid afternoon in June 1988, NASA climatologist James Hansen alerted us to its ever present danger, testifying before a U. S. Senate committee, and then, afterwards, to a group of reporters. One mere sentence uttered by Hansen to these reporters, emphasized this danger, "It's time to stop waffling.... and say that the greenhouse effect is here and is affecting our climate now." It is an ever present danger that has garnered the keen interest of diplomats and other politicians worldwide, including those here in the United States. But it is also an ever present danger whose very significance has been ignored by the current administration of President George W. Bush, which has instead, been engaged in scientific censorship of the most virulent kind. Physicist and writer Mark Bowen's "Censoring Science" takes a cold, hard look at the Bush administration's undeniable scientific censorship of NASA climatologist James Hansen in a fast-paced literary style that's more reminiscent of a well-plotted Ian Fleming espionage thriller, than a serious, rather credible, work of investigative scientific journalism. "Censoring Science" offers compelling evidence as to how that censorship worked, trying to cast "doubt" on superb climate science in extensively-edited scientific reports that "demonstrated" the "uncertainties" of this science, not the undeniable facts pointing to the reality of global warming. Bowen offers an inspirational portrait of Hansen, his research, and his colleagues at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies - the research center headed by Hansen - that's located at the southern end of Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus; ones which are among the most important reasons to acquire this splendid book.
Bowen demonstrates how Bush administration political appointees fostered this censorship, especially through "editing" of press releases of newly published scientific research, and in determining how scientists like Hansen could speak to professional journalists. One of these political appointees was a new appointee, college dropout George Deutsch, who soon announced his keen interest in and support of Intelligent Design by noting in an e-mail to NASA science writer Flint Wild, "... it is not NASA's place, nor should it be, to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator.... We, as NASA, must be diligent here, because this is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one half of this debate from NASA." Regrettably, an e-mail such as this one merely reflected the political mindset of those Bush administration appointees like Deutsch, who regarded global warming as "just a theory" unsubstantiated by actual scientific evidence; actual scientific evidence which was being presented by Hansen, other NASA climatologists, and their colleagues across the globe. In his unflinching, unsympathetic depiction of NASA scientific censorship of James Hansen and his research, Bowen deserves ample praise for writing what is truly one of the most important books published this year; one that ought to be read by a wide readership.
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30 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dr. Hansen and Science Meet President Bush and His Political Stooges, January 10, 2008
Dr. James Hansen is, without question, the most knowledgeable individual on the subject of climate science in the United States, and quite possibly the world. Having spent the better part of thirty years studying and researching global warming, he has little interest in politics and politicians. His goal is to discover information about global warming and disseminate that information to the world. Sadly for Dr. Hansen, Bush became President and started to insert political hacks into jobs they were sorely unqualified for ("Heck of a job there Brownie" anyone).
This book looks at a mix of three things....the almost tragically comical efforts of the Bush administration of censor science and the scientists that were producing the information (primarily at Goddard Institute for Space Studies), the life story of Dr Hansen and the science behind global warming.
The portions of the book that deal with the political attacks made me feel like I had fallen down the rabbit hole and joined Alice. It was astounding how incompetent and partisan NASA became after the appointment of various level hacks. While I can see where the employees at NASA were frightened, looking back its almost surreal how insane the whole situation became; primarily so Bush could get reelected and continue to help his corporate buddies.
The information on global warming and climate change explains some of the science and shows what the Bush administration was trying to hide. It is a fairly brief look at a very intense form of science and is explained quite well.
The book is generally well written, and the weaving of the political, biographical and scientific information keeps any one section from becoming overloaded with data. The only complaint I had was that it was nearly impossible to follow who worked for whom in which agency. A graph of who was where would have been a nice addition. A wonderful read, especially when coupled with the broader book of the subject, "Undermining Science: Suppression and Distortion in the Bush Administration".
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