Global Warming and Other Eco Myths: How the Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

~ Ronald Bailey (Editor), Competitive Enterprise Institute (Author) "No global climate disaster is looming..." (more)
Key Phrases: ideological environmentalists, ideological environmentalism, amateur epidemiology, United States, Green Revolution, World Bank (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths
"Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths challenges the tired orthodoxies of ideological environmentalism. It's refreshing to read that there is no environmental 'cancer epidemic,' that climatologist John Christy says there is no imminent global warming catastrophe, and that Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug predicts that we will be able to feed 10 billion people using less land. If market forces are unleashed, even drinking water can last forever. I just wish the environmentalists would read Bailey's book." ? John Stossel, ABC News 20/20
"Facts are stubborn things, and Ronald Bailey has once again assembled the best environmental fact-checkers in the business to explode the common misconceptions and distortions about the real state of our planet." ? Steven Hayward, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute, and author of the Index of Leading Environmental Indicators
"A stunning riposte to the eco-alarmists. Beyond debunking environmentalist scare mongering, Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths is the clearest explanation in print of the promise that eco-friendly technology offers to the human race. A must read for anyone who wants to know how we can build a healthy world environment for our children and grandchildren." ? Denis Dutton, editor of Arts & Letters Daily on the Web and professor, University of Canterbury, New Zealand -- Review

Review

Praise for Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths
"Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths challenges the tired orthodoxies of ideological environmentalism. It's refreshing to read that there is no environmental 'cancer epidemic,' that climatologist John Christy says there is no imminent global warming catastrophe, and that Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug predicts that we will be able to feed 10 billion people using less land. If market forces are unleashed, even drinking water can last forever. I just wish the environmentalists would read Bailey's book." — John Stossel, ABC News 20/20
"Facts are stubborn things, and Ronald Bailey has once again assembled the best environmental fact-checkers in the business to explode the common misconceptions and distortions about the real state of our planet." — Steven Hayward, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute, and author of the Index of Leading Environmental Indicators
"A stunning riposte to the eco-alarmists. Beyond debunking environmentalist scare mongering, Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths is the clearest explanation in print of the promise that eco-friendly technology offers to the human race. A must read for anyone who wants to know how we can build a healthy world environment for our children and grandchildren." — Denis Dutton, editor of Arts & Letters Daily on the Web and professor, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Prima Lifestyles; 1 edition (September 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761536604
• ISBN-13: 978-0761536604
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #588,695 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

133 of 161 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Response from the 'Other Side', May 21, 2003

By	Paul R. Thomas (Myrtle Beach, SC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have an open mind about all the subjects dealt with in this book and therefore found reading it very worthwile. Yes, the authors are from what one could call the 'other side' as they make no bones about directly attacking what the authors call 'ideological environmentalism'. However, the book is well written given the number of authors involved and clearly presents their arguments and information.

The book covers such topics as global warming, sustainable development, biotechnology, chemicals/pollutants and the environment, population, et. al. that should be of interest to everyone.

The strength of the book is the attempt to bring scientific research and data to bear on these important and sensitive issues and the policies that exist or that have been promoted to deal with them. This approach is very much needed and the authors should be commended for their work, regardless of where you might stand on any of the issues. We need reasoned debate.

The authors do engage in some of their own political poking at those they don't agree with and do resort to the straw man approach using 40 year old books and articles as the straw man and they do also use statistics in ways ranging from acceptable to somewhat dubious that present their case in the strongest possible light. They do ignore certain issues such as biodiversity where positive data (their obvious preference) is not available to support their strong optimism that markets and science have and will benefit humanity and solve all its problems. However, this political and economic perspective is to be expected from the American Enterprise Institute and is not presented in a too polemical tone.

Overall this book is comprehensive in its coverage, informative, well referenced and thought provoking, and therefore I can highly recommend it for those seriously and dispassionately interested in understanding these issues better.

I do not agree with certain of their analyses or use of statistics or all of their underlying philosophy but I commend them again for providing a sane and reasoned book that gives me the opportunity to study, analyse, raise questions, search references and become better informed.

Lets not shoot all the messengers or we can't discuss anything serious anymore.

248 of 329 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I actually READ the book!, February 20, 2003

By A Customer

Having actually read the book, unlike most of the reviewers in this list that have not cracked its covers or turned a single page, I think that my review should carry some weight.

First, global warming is almost certainly due to macroenvironmental factors that are not due to human activity. This is widely documented from everything from studies of glacial gase entrapment to ocean sediments.

Second, wide variations in climatic conditions are the NORM. Thus the current period of global warming, that has continued since the Little Ice Age several hundreds years ago (and centuries before CO2 emissions from human activity were a factor) can not be thought of as a radical departure from normal climatic change.

Third, Carl Sagan wrote of a "baloney detector" that we should use when evaluating science. One of the surest signs of baloney is the "reducto ad hominum" argument. True, "only" two PHDs were involved in this book (there are countless books by a SINGLE PHD that are not attacked in this manner) but that is not the fault of the book. Also true, the book is sponsored by a pro-development group, but there are countless books by environmental groups that are not debased solely by that connection. Finally, most of the science is fully footnoted and you are able to check their conclusions. This is not true of most of the environmental movements polemics.

On the whole the book is readable and does not insult a laymans intelligence. The sources and bibliography are valuable for those that wish to take an honest inquiry further.

49 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I read it too, April 30, 2003

By	Alexander E. Paulsen "AlexP" (Jacksonville, Fl United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read this book with an open mind. Like most people I have been brainwashed over the years about global warming and the environmental crisis. This book was quite the eye opener.
I wish I coujld have given it 5 stars to combat all the negative reviews by those who have never even seen a copy, but I thought "The Satanic Gasses" gave a better perspective on the psuedoscience surrounding the issue.
This is better if you are looking for some good talking points on the issue.
The book is well referenced and no one should have any trouble checking out the sources. I felt the book let enough to your own imagination where the reader could form their own opinions.
It is an easy read without too many deep technical discussions to spare those poor unfortunate victims of public education from having to think too hard. But then most of them would never be caught dead reading a book like his.