Customer Reviews

Challenging Environmental Mythology: Wrestling Zeus

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This is an awesome read that is fast paced and presents a counter to the pseudo-science and hysteria presented by the media and the "environmentalists". We've allowed half truths and propaganda to replace good scientific analysis in public policy, creating programs spending billions of dollars that might save one life in the next 20 years versus efforts that could save thousands now. Just yesterday (April 3rd, 2004), the San Jose Mercury news reported on the rescue of some bird eggs that would not survive in the wild due to thin egg shells because of DDT - a myth that has become a commonly held 'fact' that is refuted in Dini's book (with many others...). Be informed - know both sides of the issues - read this book!

This "author" is a salesman selling junk pseudo-science to right wing reactionaries who can't think for themselves.

The above review by the "scientific" director of The Heartland Institute is laughable. This "institute" has received funds from the petroleum industry and seems to provide a pseudo-scientific front.

Buyer beware.

Jack Dini, author of Challenging Environmental Mythology, is every bit the environmentalist. He loves animals and scenic parks. He thinks clean air and water are critically important. And within the pages of this book he offers an amazingly lucid, accurate, and common-sense criticism of the environmental movement in its current state.

Dini remembers the bright scientists that set the country on an appropriate path of environmental protection more than 35 years ago. He laments the hijacking of the movement by those who care less about the environment and more about expanding government power and reducing individual freedom.

Radical environmentalists increasingly assert that the mere ability to detect the trace presence of a chemical is enough to prove we need massive and unnecessary environmental regulation and remediation. They warn about chemicals measured in parts per trillion, which is the same ratio as one second in 32,000 years.

Unjustified Radicalism

While many people implicitly understand the unjustified radicalism of such environmental extremists, most of us do not have the ability to debate such extremists effectively or educate our friends who know no better. Dini gives us the tools to fight misinformation, whether spread maliciously or out of innocent ignorance.

Dini analyzes the foundation of every major environmental issue that is now clouded with political rhetoric. At a time when the public can be thoroughly confused between fact and fiction regarding our environment, Dini unravels our problems with the precision of a brilliant physicist and the unusual ability to communicate with simple, jargon-free language we can all understand.

The 32 brief essays that compose the book (see sidebar) accurately describe the human risk, or lack thereof, from countless headlined environmental scares that have stricken fear into the hearts and minds of the great majority of the public, who do not have access to sound scientific data.

When you reach the end of this book, you will be enriched by the wonderful science you have learned from this modern-day Mr. Wizard and elated by the lifting of the weight of pessimism from your shoulders.

Challenging Environmental Myths is deeply discounted on Amazon.com. You can afford to buy a dozen copies of this book and give them to friends who are willing to meet you halfway with an open mind on the key environmental issues of the day.

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Jay Lehr, Ph.D. (lehr@heartland.org) is science director for The Heartland Institute.