Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth [Hardcover]

Christopher Booker (Author), Richard North (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2008

From salmonella in eggs to BSE, from the Millennium Bug to bird 'flu, from DDT to passive smoking, from asbestos to global warming, 'scares' have become one of the most conspicuous and damaging features of our modern world. This book for the first time tells the inside story of each of the major scares of the past two decades, showing how they have followed a remarkably consistent pattern.

It analyses the crucial role played in each case by scientists who have misread or manipulated the evidence; by the media and lobbyists who eagerly promote the scare without regard to the facts; and finally by the politicians and officials who come up with an absurdly disproportionate response, leaving us all to pay a colossal price, which may run into billions or even hundreds of billions of pounds.

The book culminates in a chillingly detailed account of the story behind what it shows has become the greatest scare of them all: the belief that the world faces disaster through man-made global warming. In an epilogue the authors compare our credulity in falling for scares to mass-hysterias of previous ages such as the post-mediaeval 'witch craze', describing our time as a 'new age of superstition'.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A very news-worthy subject, with Booker and North providing some much-needed common sense commentary.'

Publishing News

(Publishing News )

"Every politician, every journalist, every consumer of journalism, should read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it."--Mail on Sunday

(Mail on Sunday )

"Well argued and eminently readable book."

Michael Grey, Lloyd's List

Title mention by James Le Fanu in The Daily Telegraph, December 2007

Feature in ADI News, December 2007

Title mention in an article written by Christopher Booker in The Sunday Telegraph, December 2007

"Scared to Death is a masterful and salutary account of the most costly misjudgements of the last 25 years. Written with painful clarity, here is an important study of the process by which sloppy science becomes a difficult to shift orthodoxy." The Spectator

(Spectator )

"Quite simply, a must read. This expose of 'scares' of our time makes for a fascinating and eye-opening study." Resource

(Resource )

Title mention in an unfavourable review in The Observer

Title mention in article

(Telegraph & Argus )

Title mention in an article written by Christopher Booker

(Western Daily Press )

Featured in an article

(AdiNEWS )

Title mention in an article written by Richard North

(Poultry World )

Title mention in an article

(Central Somerset Gazette )

"This is a book that should be compulsory reading for every politician and journalist"

(John Brignell, SPPI )

'[A] brilliant and beautifully written expose of some of the most destructive delusions of our time"

(Human Givens, Ivan Tyrrell )

"Mr. Booker and Mr. North identify a dynamic through which a marginal public concern mushrooms into a full-blown scare — from salmonella and mad cow disease to DDT and asbestos, and focus on what may be the greatest, most costly scare of all: Global warming." --Washington Times (Carrie Lukas Washington Times )

Today's Books / Bookweek "The A-List"

"It takes a bold team of authors to take on Al Gore these days...while reading this book may make the reader want to punch his or her local elected official and the news correspondent he rode in on, the responsibility for controlling these scares ultimately rests with each of us." --Popmatters.com

"Possibly the most important book written in the last 100 years." Amazon reviewer

(Amazon )

"There is so much to commend this book. Not only is it packed with solidly researched evidence, it's also a gripping narrative read. there are few books on current affairs that really qualify as page-turners, but this is most definitely one of them ... It ought to be required reading for every adult in the country."

Pan Pantziarka, London Book Review.com, March 12th 2008

Reviewed in H-Soz-u-Kult, November 2008

(Cord Arendes )

Mentioned in The Bookseller, June 2009

(Katie Allen )

"Every politician, every journalist, every consumer of journalism, should read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it."--Mail on Sunday

(, )

"Scared to Death is a masterful and salutary account of the most costly misjudgements of the last 25 years. Written with painful clarity, here is an important study of the process by which sloppy science becomes a difficult to shift orthodoxy." The Spectator

(, )

"Quite simply, a must read. This expose of 'scares' of our time makes for a fascinating and eye-opening study." Resource

(, )

Title mention in article

(, )

Title mention in an article written by Christopher Booker

(, )

Featured in an article

(, )

Title mention in an article written by Richard North

(, )

Title mention in an article

(, )

"This is a book that should be compulsory reading for every politician and journalist"

(, )

'[A] brilliant and beautifully written expose of some of the most destructive delusions of our time"

(, )

"Mr. Booker and Mr. North identify a dynamic through which a marginal public concern mushrooms into a full-blown scare — from salmonella and mad cow disease to DDT and asbestos, and focus on what may be the greatest, most costly scare of all: Global warming." --Washington Times (, Washington Times )

Today’s Books / Bookweek “The A-List”

“It takes a bold team of authors to take on Al Gore these days…while reading this book may make the reader want to punch his or her local elected official and the news correspondent he rode in on, the responsibility for controlling these scares ultimately rests with each of us.” –Popmatters.com

"Possibly the most important book written in the last 100 years." Amazon reviewer

(, )

Reviewed in H-Soz-u-Kult, November 2008

(, )

Mentioned in The Bookseller, June 2009

(, )

About the Author

As a noted commentator on the political, social and psychological history of our time, Christopher Booker has in recent years, through his weekly Sunday Telegraph column, become the most conspicuous 'global warming sceptic' in the British press. He has based his view on exhaustive research into the scientific evidence for and against the theory of 'man-made climate change'.

His professional interest in this issue grew out of research for his previous book Scared To Death, co-written with Dr Richard North, a study of the 'scare phenomenon' which has been such a prominent feature of Western life in recent decades. Booker's other recent books have included The Seven Basic Plots, a best-selling analysis of why we tell stories which has established itself as a standard text (also published by Continuum). He has been an author and journalist for nearly 50 years, and was the founding editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye.

Richard North is a political analyst who has been a research director in the European Parliament and was formerly a nationally-known consultant on public health and food safety. He has co-authored several books with Christopher Booker.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (March 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826486142
• ISBN-13: 978-0826486141
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,127,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant analysis of scares, March 5, 2008

By 

William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth (Hardcover)

Journalist Christopher Booker and former food safety consultant Dr Richard North have written a fascinating book on the rash of scares in the last 20 years. They earlier worked together on a brilliant book on the European Union The great deception.

They study the food scares - salmonella in eggs (1988-9), listeria in cheese, BSE in beef (1996-9) and dioxins in Belgian poultry (1999). Other scares they discuss include the Millennium bug (1999), DDT, the satanic child abuse mania (1987-94), lead, passive smoking, asbestos, SARS, bird flu (2005) (which the World Health Organisation absurdly called `the greatest single health challenge'), organophosphorus, and global warming.

They note that banning DDT has killed two million people every year, because DDT had cut malaria deaths by 95%. The EU backed the ban on DDT.

Organophosphorus, used in sheep dip, was `MAFF-approved', and an HSE leaflet warned of its `cumulative toxicity' leading to `irreversible' damage to the nervous system, akin to ME and Gulf War Syndrome (which also never happened, according to the MoD). The government suppressed the whole story, because it was directly responsible.

A review in the Independent claimed that their chapter on global warming had scarcely any scientific references. It has 117, including important articles in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the Journal of Geophysical Research, Energy and Environment, the International Journal of Climatology, six from Nature and five from Science. The authors expose as exaggerated the claims of climate doom. They point out that historically rising CO2 levels are associated both with rising and falling temperatures and that the overall ice mass of the Antarctic, which has 89.5% of the world's ice, is increasing, as is Greenland's (10%).

They study the roles of scientists, the media, politicians, officials and non-governmental organisations, especially the `animal rights' groups. All these scares, and others from the witch craze to McCarthyism to the war scares over Iraq and Iran, always give the message - trust the government, pay the huge costs of protection. The real message of the scares for us must be - always look at the evidence not the spin, and seek the truth.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Antidote for Scares, June 7, 2008

By 

Paul Warme (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth (Hardcover)

"Scared to Death" does a very good job of describing past scares: Salmonella in eggs, Listeria in cheese, Mad Cow Disease, Dioxins in poultry feed, anti-malarial DDT, SARS and bird flu, The Milennium Bug, Ritualized Child Abuse, Auto Speed Limits, Lead in gasoline, Passive Smoking, organophosphorus in pesticides, and The Great Asbestos Scam. This book also summarizes the misinformation and misconceptions surrounding the Global Warming Scare and explains why the Kyoto Protocol is a futile and economically disastrous policy.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening, December 29, 2008

By 

S. Johnson (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth (Hardcover)

Very informative and well written. The illnesses and food scares became a bit tedious after a while, however the chapters on Global Warming, lead, asbestos, and second hand smoke were facinating and very well documented. The author provides details most have never heard behind the suppression and discrediting of dissenting studies, which are abandoned after they fail to support the politically correct position. I've watched since the 60s as passive smoking went from a stinky habit which was impolite to do in the company of non-smokers, to the 2000's when near panic would errupt by the fanatical anti-smoking lobby if a single whiff entered their nostrils on a beach. Truly silly stuff. Its always surprised me that Americans would buy into that nonsense. This book really details how deceived we've been - and still are.