Customer Reviews

The Down-to-Earth Guide To Global Warming

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I can't help noticing that reviews of this book mirror the controversy surrounding this topic. And that's a good thing. (I also can't help noticing what feels like a coordinated attack based on a single technical error, as if that discredited the fundamental science behind this book's premise, which no serious scientist doubts.) In my household, this wonderfully written, funny, accessible and very important book has led to lots of healthy discussions about our world -- and our own household. Suddenly my kids -- 10 and 7 -- are talking and thinking about electricity and water usage, recycling, gas mileage, thermostat settings, and even the great outdoors itself, in ways they never did before. I'm glad this book has people talking, because, as the book points out, the solutions to this problem will make us stronger as a people, and there's much more danger in doing -- or saying -- nothing.

Readers should be aware that the the first editions of this book contain a chart (page 18 ) of the past 650,000 years that shows that CO2 emissions rose BEFORE global temperatures. In fact, the chart is reversed - CO2 emissions did rise, but only hundreds (in some cases thousands) of years AFTER temperature rises. For some reason the chart lines are backwards.

Scholastic is planning to issue a revised version with an updated chart, but there will be no revision to the text of the book, which references and explains the chart. I don't know that most kids will notice that the chart does not support the argument, but an important subject like this should be accurate in all details.

With such inaccuracies I do not recommend the book. Explain global warming to your children yourself - and be sure and use accurate information!

book arrived well within promised time and in perfect condition. Great book to explain a complex subject to kids (and adults)

This book directly competes with "The Sky is Not Falling". The best thing to do is to read both books and make decisions on your own.

The point is (few people dispute it), the earth is warming. There are conflicting opinions on why. This book presents the "mainstream" belief that is rightfully under attack. The integrity of the data does not stand up to presenting solid "proof" that human generated CO2 is causing global warming. The planet is warming and CO2 has increased. We know one is driving the other based on the 650,000 year chart. The real chart tells us that CO2 rises after temperature rises. Even in the face of this recognized fact the alarmists believe the debate is over.

The point of this entire debate is what we do about Global Warming. If you believe that we are causing the rise in temperature, then you must believe in the rules set forth in the Kyoto treaty. Most people don't have any idea what the Kyoto treaty is, what it will force us to do, what impact it will have on the economy and that only the "wealthy" countries have to act on the treaty. If you believe we are impacting the climate, read what you can about the treaty and ask yourself if you are ready and willing to sacrifice your job and your future ability to support your family as the cascading effects of regulation destroy the world economy. If you believe, therefore, we all must act, you are destroying your child's economic future.

If you are of the mind that the earth is warming because of a natural cycle and that there is nothing we can do about it, that should not mean that we need to live an unnecessarily gluttonous lifestyle. Teaching our children to recycle, to turn off lights, to utilize more efficient energy sources is responsible and does not have any negative impact.

The problem with the arguments right now is that they are polarizing. You either "love the planet" or you "hate the planet". I can love the planet, yet believe that we are going through a natural cycle that we will have to adjust to. I'm not willing to destroy our economy or my children's ability to support their families under the premise that some scientists using questionable data tell me the world will end. I do believe that we are wasteful and that there are responsible things we can do to reduce. I will teach my children how to conserve and be responsible while telling them the facts of this debate.

Let's begin to question what is going on in reality. The people who are preaching to us, Al Gore, Hollywood and others are not impacted by any negative economic events that will fall upon us with the realities of the Kyoto treaty. Al Gore uses 20 times the electricity of the average household and flies on private jets. The hollywood elite lead their extravagant lifestyles while preaching to us to conserve. Being wasteful and then purchasing Carbon Credits (from companies he is invested in) is about the most hypocritical thing a person can do. That is Al Gore.

Did you know that the countries who have signed onto the Kyoto treaty are being paid cash for planting trees? In order to find land to plant trees on, they are clear cutting old forests and replanting to get the money.

Politicians always have good intentions. What they are not good about is understanding the economics of the unintended consequences of their actions. The point made above is a perfect example of this.

Be a good citizen of this earth. Read all sides of this and all issues. Make an unemotional conclusion, understanding all of the impacts of that conclusion and ACT. Don't be lazy and follow the mainstream and let yourself be sucked along without knowing the facts or the possible outcomes. The mainstream accepted the "facts" of Iraq and we now have a bad result in Iraq. We are heading down a similar path with the global warming debate.

The mainstream is eliminating debate. That is unacceptable.

This 'text' is a clear indication of the falsification of scientific data. The graph, on page 18, demonstrating the historical relationship between temperature increase and CO2 concentration, as evidenced in the Vostok ice core records, is exactly reversed. Temperature change is labelled as CO2 and vice versa. Seigenthaler (2005), from which this data was taken, even state the obvious: temp increases have historically preceeded CO2 increases. Data falsification, plan to see for all who read.

On page 18 the authors show a graph that purports to show that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide have caused increases in temperature over the last 650,000 years. However, they have reversed the two curves. The Temperature curve is really the Carbon Dioxide curve.

When properly graphed, the curves clearly show that an increase in temperature precedes an increase in carbon dioxide level by several hundred to a few thousand years.

Al Gore also reversed the curves in his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth". He admitted as much in his recent testimony before Congress.

The authors also misrepresent the contributions of the various "greenhouse" gases. The most virulent gas is water vapor, followed by methane, and then carbon dioxide. Man's net contribution of carbon dioxide is just a few tenths on one percent.

This book is dangerous reading for our children. It is giving them false and misleading information. They should be encouraged to read serious scientific articles on the subject. Not some book by activists with an obvious agenda.

The book was given as a gift to my son, who found it rather boring, quickly discarding it in favor of books about soccer and American football. This allowed a careful perusal of the book and its content, which, truth be told, I found lacking as well.

In order for its suggestions to be relevant, in order for its impact to be felt, the science behind Ms. David's book has to be correct. As has already been mentioned, this book has a major flaw, which it has carried over from the related movie An Inconvenient Truth - e.g. the data sets for temperature and CO2 are reversed. When one learns that simple fact one discovers that temperature leads CO2 concentrations - not the other way around - which makes sense when one considers that CO2 is less soluble in water at higher temperatures. And the lag is fairly consistent and predictable between the two.

That Ms. David, a non-scientist, has opted to perpetuate this rather glaring error suggests one of two things - either that she really is a vapid celebrity of little brain or that she perhaps has some other reason for inducing nightmares in children than the good of Planet Earth. It could be, perhaps, that she would like for us to forget about her jet-setting narcissistic lifestyle and her own huge carbon footprint - and also her opposition to renewable energy projects when they impede her view from Martha's Vineyard.

Ms. David has stated many times that "the debate is over" - and for her it probably is, but our children will have to live with the results of the smothering policy initiatives she proposes as the solution to this non-existent problem. They will be affected by the inevitable reductions in standards of living in David's new era, where every Carbon atom is counted.

The debate for the rest of us is NOT over - not by a long shot. Some of us remember what we learned about geology - that the carbon got underneath the ground somehow or other, and that it was floating around in the Earth's atmosphere at far higher levels than we see now (as evidenced by ice core data David does not mention).

One star because zero was impossible to give.

After reading The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming, I was surprised by how simple it is to make changes that will help in the effort to stop global warming. Moreover, I was grateful for this very clear and "not scary" explanation of what exactly is happening and why. This book is sure to be a hit in classrooms and homes, as it provides an upbeat and easy-to-understand text paired with a message of hope.

A prior review states: "I also can't help noticing what feels like a coordinated attack based on a single technical error, as if that discredited the FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE behind this book's premise, WHICH NO SERIOUS SCIENTISTS DOUBTS." (Caps added for emphasis.) The global-warming koolaid drinkers will just keep repeating the mantra that "man-made global warming is a proven fact" over and over again, and referring to the hundreds of highly-credentialed experts in the field who disagree with that fundamental premise as something OTHER THAN "serious scientists".

I'm all in favor of being good stewards of our earth, but this kind of unsupported (and unsupportable) attack on the vast volume of evidence that isn't in lock-step with the agenda of the global warming theorists is pure propaganda. A scientifically legitimate book would consider both sides of the argument.

Now whether global warming is true or not is not even the argument with this book. As others have already stated, the chart allegedly showing the relationship between CO2 levels and temperature was mislabeled. This mistake conveniently promotes the author's thesis. This is a huge mistake when that graph is the basis of the whole book's argument. If you are looking to teach your kids anything from this book, it's not global warming but rather the importance of having a good editor and being accurate with your data. The most disappointing thing about this is that most people will not even realize this critical mistake and schools/parents will be buying this trash for students.