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Climatism!: Science, Common Sense, and the 21st Century's Hottest Topic

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If you care about twenty-first century society, you must read Steve Goreham's new book, Climatism. In my 55-year career as a scientist I have written more than 1,000 book reviews for various journals. No book has pleased me more than this one.


Unmasking a Dangerous System

After The Heartland Institute's Third International Conference on Climate Change in March 2009, Goreham decided to summarize, between the covers of a single book, everything everyone should know on this topic. In 390 pages of narrative, including 133 outstanding charts and illustrations plus 1,134 references from countless articles, he has succeeded.

Goreham has performed a service for the uncommitted citizen, which could one day lead to the unraveling of the new social order, religion, and political system Goreham calls climatism. While an ever-larger percentage of the public is beginning to recognize that man cannot and does not control the global climate, the public has no idea how thoroughly climatism has infiltrated the seats of world power.


Scientific Flaws

The first five chapters of the book are filled with persuasive science presented in such a readable manner that the average layman will easily grasp it. For instance, we often hear about the concepts of positive and negative climate feedback, but few people understand their importance. The author explains these concepts clearly and shows how the asserted positive feedbacks that cause most of the forecasted warming in alarmist computer models are not happening in the real world.

In a section titled "Garbage In, Garbage Out," Goreham explains:

"Model simulation results are not experimental data. No matter how many different models get similar results, no matter how many times models are run, if the underlying physical basis of the assumptions [is] wrong, the models will give the wrong result. And the modelers have been finely tuning the wrong result for 30 years."

Chapter six, "Global Warming Disasters Debunked," is by itself worth the price of the book. Here the author provides the reader with objective evidence to counter the plethora of unsubstantiated global warming scares presented by climatists and their media allies.


IPCC Farce Exposed

Few people really understand the origin, purpose, and composition of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Goreham pulls off the difficult task of explaining it more vividly than a sports commentator explains a key play in the Super Bowl.

In short, IPCC is a political organization masquerading as a scientific body. As a political organization, it works to achieve political consensus, not scientific truth.

IPCC, Goreham explains, created a process to achieve a "science consensus" confirming manmade global warming by effectively using six techniques.

The first was to assemble a large group of scientists to agree on a consensus. The second was to select authors of critical chapters who are predisposed to support the manmade global warming dogma. The third was to provide these authors with authoritarian editorial power.

The fourth technique was to encourage lobbying groups to pressure for consensus. The fifth: writing the conclusions before the science was agreed. The sixth and final technique was selective choice of science to support the dogma and minimize natural explanations for climate change.

The process has been truly Machiavellian, but IPCC has largely gotten away with it and most of the world believes the garbage they publish.


Underlying Motives

In chapter eight Goreham defines climatism in all its ignominious awfulness: "Climatism opposes the free development of human society and seeks to substitute autocratic control from centralized government bureaucracy. It calls for the radical transformation of our way of life, regardless of cost. Climatism demands adherence from all nations."

In chapter nine, Goreham presents a vest-pocket guide to dissuading your friends of the prevalent false beliefs about climate. This chapter is a must-read.

In part three of the book, encompassing chapters 12 through 17, Goreham offers the finest tutorial on the hopelessness of renewable energy "solutions." He draws heavily from Howard Hayden's wonderful book Solar Fraud, as well as many other sources, and his investigative reporting style presents all this information in a very understandable manner.

Goreham really gets to the nut of climatism insanity in chapter 17, where he asks, "When has mankind ever been able to stop the rise of the sea? When have we ever been able to control the weather at a single location on Earth? Yet, climatism now demands that we switch to renewable energy, forego economic growth and consumption, and accept thousands of regulations on energy use for our home, transportation, business and recreation. If we do so, then we'll be able to command the tides and control the weather. Climatism is a belief system--not a science."


House of Cards

Climatism is big business. It financially supports modeling scientists and their multimillion-dollar supercomputers, environmental editors at newspapers, entire university departments, environmental vice presidents at thousands of companies, and huge government bureaucracies of climate regulators, enforcers, and consultants.

We now have a great many people standing on a house of cards, but the more people who read this book and spread the truth it contains, the sooner this house of cards will come tumbling down.


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

Mr. Steve Goreham has written a very interesting, readable, and useful compendium on the global warming hoax. The book is packed with information and documented with numerous references. There are three major sections in this book. The first section details and documents the false science behind the global warming hoax. Carbon dioxide does not cause global warming. Climate change is driven much more by the sun. And other factors such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation influence earth's temperatures. The second section details the pseudo religious nature of the climate control movement and its tactics. The section documents the repressive tactics of the global warming proponents against scientists and others who dispute their beliefs. In essence anthropological global warming is not science but a demented system of religious beliefs. This sect is not interested in scientific truth but in power over the lives of others. The third section describes the warmist renewable energy solutions to the alleged problem of global warming. The sections makes very clear these warmist proposals would greatly raise energy costs and reduce living costs while having no effect on the climate of the earth. The cost increases have been confirmed by recent experience in Spain, the United States, and elsewhere.

All of the chapters are very useful and interesting. Of particular use is the chapter "Carbon Dioxide: Not Guilty". In this chapter Mr. Goreham points out that more carbon dioxide enables better plant growth. He also relates that carbon dioxide does not stay in the atmosphere for long due to Henry's Law in chemistry. Valid scientific studies places the average carbon dioxide lifetime in the atmosphere under fifteen years. Isotope analysis of carbon in the atmosphere confirms that only four percent of the carbon dioxide comes from human or anthropogenic sources. This finding is contrary to the predictions of the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change). Moreover carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has the filter effect. An extra unit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affects the earth's climate by much less than the unit placed in the atmosphere before it. Carbon dioxide has minimal influence on global temperatures.

Also of particular interest is the section of the costs of the recent Waxman Markey carbon cap and trade bill. Sanctimonious Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey claimed the cost to the average family would be a postage stamp per day. However the Congressional Budget Office study Markey refers to ignores most of the cost of the renewable energy system. The ignored costs include the substitution of wind and solar power for hydrocarbon power at twice the cost, the cost of the new transmission lines needed for wind and solar power, vastly increased renewable energy subsidies, and job losses from businesses relocating out of America to avoid higher energy costs.

In sum this work is a great book. It is a must read for every American and everyone concerned about the fate of humanity.

For several years before I left teaching in the classroom, I would swim against the stream and tantalize my students with the notion that, just maybe, all the "leading" climate scientists were incorrect in their exaggerated claims that human activity was responsible for the acceleration of climate change (and far too many students were under the grossly exaggerated notion that humans were its actual cause, an idea I was hoping they were misunderstanding, rather than being fed, in other classes). Look to the sun, I would advise them. For the more astute students, who wanted to understand better and would seek me out on their own time, I would caution them that science has historically been politicized, and to follow the money, as it were, using all available info to come up with their own conclusions, based on what they knew about the scientific method and statistics, and how each could be used to tell three sides of the same story, depending on who was conducting the research, how the research was being funded, and how entities from carbon credit traders to oil companies to the "local" energy providers stood to benefit from these certain conclusions. Some of the sharper, or, if you will, more cynical, ones would remark about the intentionally emotional and provocative scenes from a particular academy award-winning documentary they were all sent to see one Earth Day, and challenged themselves and their friends to consider the machinations behind and repercussions of that film. While the earnest arguments of that film had not convinced me that I should trade in my SUV and incandescent light bulbs else the planet collapse into a Venusian nightmare of runaway greenhouse temps in a crushing atmosphere of deadly gases, I was willing to consider notions that we could be active participants in an improved economy (all the great tycoons recognized a bandwagon long before everyone else jumped on it--railroads, oil, computers, etc) and stewards of the environment. Many arguments for the need for alternative energy sources encouraged me to consider the "diversifying of our energy portfolio," if I may make that comparison, and open my mind to all sides of the argument. [I had the opportunity to attend several energy symposia, in which the physicists and chemists impressed me with their proposals for alternative energy sources and carbon sequestration, but the environmental scientists (whose TA-advisee groupies always tagged along, enjoying their time beyond the confines of the usual lecture-hall, office-hour echo chamber to root on their svengalis) looked positively foolish with their entreaties of, "Let's dot the landscape with windmills," and I patiently spent an hour after one morning's presentation explaining to an well-meaning, but ill-informed citizen relic from the era of Haight-Ashbury that the scientists had no intention of dumping carbon-in the form of plastic syringes and charcoal-into the ocean]

Having said all this (and bless you for indulging my review), I wish this book had been around then to provide to these students and concerned citizens. I was very excited when I was looking into purchasing another book as recommended by a trusted friend to me, and this one popped up on the screen, with the sun prominently displayed on the front cover. Indeed, the book has it all, starting with the science forming the argument, and confronting the widely reported conclusions by, rather than chastising and demonizing famous charlatans, disputing their findings matter-of-factly. While it is, in my estimation, lacking in some areas, these pet topics of mine are non-sequiturs given the focus of the book. It is very straightforward, concisely written, and fair in its explanation and application of the science. Moreover, it is vey well bound and printed on very good quality paper, the kind of stock that got me interested in owning hardcover years ago, over the slightly-better-than-newsprint paper on which most paperbacks are printed (and many HC seem to be moving toward now). This is a book that is meant to be read, pored over, and passed around and discussed. I just may get some more copies...

Prepare your mind for a quest into the dismantling process of what is likely to be THE WORLD-WIDE ULTRA HOAX of modern time. Then witness Steve Goreham, seemingly return the proverbial toothpaste BACK into its tube.

I have purchased and read several books that defend both sides of the so called ...[global cooling/warming/climate change/green/clean and so on]. This publication, by far, has the caliber to deliver what a concerned skeptic, such as myself, demands. Goreham hits hard with useful charts, graphs, tables, photos, and art to accompany some of the most informative prose that effectively NAILS the "man-made-global-warming" alarmist up against some of the very latest discoveries. More empirics and less computer modeling/shady emails, allows for a more clear juxtaposition for the quizzical minded folks gearing their way toward scientific truth.

The beliefs, objectives, and tatics of Climatism are fully described and displayed for easy interpretation. Yes, Al Gore is also exposed, (intellectually only thank you), regarding his many contributions to the HOAX ... as made clear by Justice Burton of the Royal Court of London finding as many as (9) major scientific errors that "promoted partisan political views".

Most illuminating for me are, Chapter 4 ... Climate Change is Continuous and Chapter 5 ... The SUN IS Our Climate Driver !!!!! Sunspot Cycles, Solar Flares, Solar Wind, Cosmic Rays, Sulfur Dioxide Ions, Condensation Nuclei, Low-Altitude Clouds and their solar reflective capacity ALL contribute (along with many other complex NON-MAN-MADE interactions) to drive our climate where IT WANTS TO GO !!!!

The book itself is a strong well made product, pages are heavy grade/brite white with a dark black quite large typeface I found pleasingly useful. A couple of shortcomings that cost a star ... Only a modest amount of coverage was applied to the truth concerning "up-a-dee" lifestyles of the world's top "conservationist" and their dubious relationships with the corporate world ... and maybe some extended coverage of the REAL FUELS of the future which would have likely set a productive tone for the optimistic American consumer that realizes our Nations energy needs, and wants them provided in the most responsible and economically viable way possible. Also, a minor peeve - no standard measurements aside the metrics.

One may consider ...Green, Inc.: An Environmental Insider Reveals How a Good Cause Has Gone Bad and ...Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future, respectfully to further address the two slighted areas mentioned above. Goreham also provides a healthy dose of further reading recommendations.

I can't help but to think back to good ole Jed Clampett's quip whenever someone was tryin' to give him 'the business' .... "oh - go on ... your greenin' me" ?!?!?

In his masterpiece, Climatism, Steve Goreham has crafted a wonderfully thorough yet understandable piece that fully reveals the inner workings of the network of international organizations that are attempting to transform the world in the name of climate change. In the course of reading the book, one quickly develops a sense of a world overwhelmed by the legion of far left institutions arrayed against those who dare speak out for capitalism, free markets and the true betterment of mankind.

After only a few pages, this book confirmed my rather sketchy High School Science.......Anthropogenic Global Warming is a SCAM!
A clear systematic progression through the CONFIRMED and KNOWN science helps the reader to fully understand the real science behind and is driving Climate variations. By simple clear engilsh terms and a few techo ideas, Steve Goreham has exploded the shonky science of Al Gore and his Climatist' Ideologes.
After less than 100 pages, I am really beginning to fully understand the false, erroneous claims behind the Tree-huggers Scam, and to see where Steve has exploded the Al Gore Myths.
After reading this book, I have no hesitation in facing down any of the Modern Religionists of Climatism.
However I do realise the battle will be won by steady, levelheaded pragmatism in the face of Heretic Screams of the Climatists.

Potentially catastrophic alterations of the Earth's climate due to human activity around the planet continues to be a source of intense study within the scientific community and considerable controversy within the political sphere. "Climatism!: Science, Common Sense, and the 21st Century's Hottest Topic" by Steve Goreham is a 480-page compendium of information, research, analysis and commentary that gives careful, methodical, and documented examination of the diverse and interrelated issues with respect to a perceived global warming crisis. Of special note is that "Climatism!" is thoroughly 'reader friendly' making it idea for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the current global climate discussion. Informed and informative, providing insightful analytical commentary on renewable energy alternatives, and offering a globally oriented perspectives, "Climatism!" is strongly recommended reading and a valued addition to academic and community library Environmental Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

This is a fact book. But not just facts about climate, where we have more than enough. It's about facts how it would be to make the 180er to green energy.
A German climate scientist has written lately that a relatively small part of the Sahara desert gets as much energy from the sun, as the world needs throughout the year. He calls just to use it. Sounds simple and reasonable.
But this book brings reality into the game, with real figures and proves such daydreaming to be what it is.
Realists are not people who ran out of visisons, but they feel a responsibilty how to make things real, not just talk, talk, talk ... and make energy a luxury good. This book is a resource.

Name an issue that is more polarizing than global warming.

OK, well, abortion and immigration. Anything else?

Each year, the Pew Research Center does a poll on the "Public's Political Agenda". The results were announced on January 25, 2010. It's September now, and I realize things change, but they only do this poll once a year. Of the twenty-one items, global warming came in dead last. Immigration was ranked 18th, health care was eighth and abortion didn't scratch. Now, to be fair, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico didn't happen until April and "the environment" ranked 16th in the Pew Poll. It will be interesting to see how the ratings change in the next annual poll. Maybe it's a bit early for Al Gore to pack up his Oscar and go home.

Regardless of which side of the global warming issue you find yourself, have you been successful in converting anyone who doesn't agree over to your point of view? That might be as easy as getting Michelle Obama to become a Methodist Republican -- or getting Rush Limbaugh to become a Zen Buddhist Democrat! So, I did a poll. It's un-scientific, completely random, voluntary and surprising in results. BUT, I didn't lie about the results to add drama or to attempt to change the public's sense of urgency. Frankly, the results were surprising. Over ninety per cent of the respondents said they were open to change. Up until now, my experience has shown that people have been very closed minded about global warming -- once they've made up their mind.

People on both sides of the issue have put forth reams of published data to support their position. Both sides have stated emphatically that "the scientific data is in, it's conclusive, and our side is right." Then they attack each other's data. "Our scientists have more accurate data than your scientists." "Your scientists have sold out and published data to support the position of their benefactors." and blah, blah, blah. Who can you trust? Which set of data is correct? I like what Carl Sagan said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

Michael Crichton, author of State of Fear says in his "Author's Message" at the conclusion of his book, "I have more respect for people who change their views after acquiring new information than for those who cling to views they held thirty years ago. The world changes. Ideologues and zealots don't." The late Dr. Crichton had some good advice for us on many issues concerning the environment.

Before we consider the definition of "climatism", let's look at author Steve Goreham's recommendations for further reading and see which side of the issue he's on.
Here's three:
Blue Planet in Green Shackles: What is Endangered: Climate or Freedom? by Vaclav Klaus
Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor by Roy Spencer
The Deniers: The World Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution and Fraud -- And those who are too fearful to do so. by Lawrence Soloman

In the introduction to Climatism, Goreham defines the concept as a new ideology, one based on the belief "that man-made greenhouse gases are destroying Earth's climate." He goes on to say that it is an "extreme form of environmentalism that is using the natural climatic changes of Earth to re-define our societies." Goreham charges that the proponents of climatism are well funded by foundations and use their own brand of science to cause widespread fear of global catastrophe to alarm the public and achieve their objectives. All this is on page one! If you find yourself in Al Gore's camp, have a "Greenpeace" sticker on your car, or think man-made chemicals are destroying our environment, now is the time to ask yourself if you are one of the more than 90% of open minded people willing to change. Beware, Mr. Goreham is a great salesman!

If you liked Crichton's book and/or agree with Rush Limbaugh's 1992 assessment of global warming as "a hoax", then you'll love this book! Joseph Bast, President of The Heartland Institute (Heartland's mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems.) says, "Climatism is a fantastic book, I recommend it often." This reviewer finds the book a personification of Crichton's fiction and the term "climatism" an appropriate representation of Crichton's phrase, "poisonous politics and pseudo-science".

Steve Goreham (husband and father of three) is an engineer, business executive, and avid outdoorsman (kayaker). He has a masters degree in electrical engineering and also an MBA. He says, "We all want to pass a better world on to our children. But our policies must be based on logic and sound science, not propaganda and fear." That sounds like something with which even Al Gore would agree.

Goreham's opus is composed of 394 pages of text (including over 130 charts, graphs, diagrams and photos [Would Sagan consider this evidence as being extraordinary?]) and would make a thorough text book for the subject of climate change. The "Foreword" was written by John Coleman, the GW skeptic who launched The Weather Channel. The obviously well researched Climatism includes fifty-six pages of notes and a fourteen page index.

Goreham reveals his plan in the introduction and describes the three sections of the book. Part One examines the science behind global warming. Part Two explains the concept of "climatism" and remedies put forth by its proponents for stopping global warming. It's in Part Two where we learn about the attempts of the IPCC to rewrite history with Mann's infamous "Hockey Stick curve". Finally, in Part Three, Goreham digs into the economics involved. Like a good teacher, Mr. Goreham tells you what he's going to do, then he does it. Along the way, he addresses the sham of "consensus science", a significant aspect of the environmental movement. His conclusion "will be that the global warming of the 20th century is primarily due to natural causes and not due to man-made emissions of carbon dioxide." If you aren't a "denier", you'd best be open to change, because this book will convince you to switch sides -- and don't worry, Goreham doesn't attack his opponents with slander and hyperbole, just hard cold facts, and lots of them. By the time you're done with this book, you'll join me in saying "globaloney!"

Would I buy Climatism? Yes, faster than one of the world's 169,000 glaciers can melt enough to make a mint julep!

This book gives the information that those getting rich over the global warming "crisis" don't want us to see. No matter your viewpoint or political persuasion, you simply cannot be conversant on climate issues without reading this book.