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Searching for the Catastrophe Signal: The Origins of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by [Bernie Lewin]

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Bernie Lewin

Searching for the Catastrophe Signal: The Origins of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Kindle Edition

by Bernie Lewin (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the IPCC – is the global authority on climate science and behind some of the most important policy changes in the history of industrial society. It is therefore probably the most influential scientific body in the world.

Yet the surprising story of how it came to prominence is little known. Its origins can be traced back to earlier panics over the effects of supersonic transportation and ozone layer depletion, which taught political elites that science-based scares could be powerful drivers of policy action. It was as an authority fit to deliver the required evidence on climate change that the IPCC came into being.

However, in the rush towards a climate treaty, IPCC scientists continued to report that evidence of manmade climate change was scarce and that confirmation of a manmade effect should not be expected for decades. Without a `catastrophe signal' that could justify a policy response, the panel faced its imminent demise.

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387 pages
Language

English
Publication date

November 20, 2017
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18 years
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12056 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B077N36Q3Z
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Global Warming Policy Foundation (November 20, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 20, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 12056 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 387 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #1,183,226 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2,196 in Science History & Philosophy
- #2,545 in Climatology
- #4,425 in History of Science & Medicine

Customer Reviews:
25 ratings

About the author

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Bernie Lewin

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Bernie Lewin is an amateur historian and philosopher of science based in Melbourne, Australia.

His historical interests include: ancient Pythagorean mathematics; Catholic skepticism of the 16th Century; the epistemological revolution begun during the Restoration of the British monarchy in the 17th Century; and the 'Foundation of Mathematics' controversy that started in the late 19th century. A recent interest in the corruption of post-WWII state-funded natural science led to his first published book, 'Searching for the Catastrophe Signal'.

If there is one word to describe his philosophical view it is Platonism. This underlies his history investigations as well as his approach to George Spencer Brown's 'Laws of Form' (1969). 'Laws of Form' presents the 'Boolean arithmetic' elementary to logic and all forms of arithmetic. For Lewin, 'Laws of Form' might well herald a revival of Platonic science by showing a better way -- a more Pythagorean way (i.e., self-referencing, non-analytical) -- to build a hierarchy of infinite numbers and, in doing so, forge a new relationship with geometry. This view is carefully developed through an historical narrative in his second book, Enthusiastic Mathematics.

Lewin is the founding director of the Platonic Academy of Melbourne.

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E. Calvin Beisner

Compelling history

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2020

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Anyone who thinks the science behind global warming alarmism it's simple, objective, empirically sound science in action needs to read this book. The political and financial forces driving toward alarmist conclusions about climate change have been powerful for generations, and that have resulted in scientific claims that go far beyond the evidence. Those in turn have led to government policies that go far beyond not only the science but also the economics, and threaten to undermine the prospects uplifting the world's remaining poor out of their poverty and suffering.

2 people found this helpful

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Don B

Anyone who is interested in why there is such groupthink ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2018

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Anyone who is interested in why there is such groupthink in climate activism needs to read this book. The description of the years leading up to the formation of the UN's IPCC, which is a lobbying rather than a scientific body, and the early years of that activist organization, is something which needs to be understood.

9 people found this helpful

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Wayne C. Defferding

The author did an amazing job explaining what went on behind the scenes at ...

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2018

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The author did an amazing job explaining what went on behind the scenes at the UN and the IPCC in approaching the
"ozone" hole and subsequently the "global warming" issue. Great read for those interested in either but particularly the global warming issue and how the world nations approached both subjects.

3 people found this helpful

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Anthony Cummins

The real Deal

Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2019

Verified Purchase

It explains the pattern, which the current panic is following.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

This book shows how a well regarded, independant scientific body can be heavily influenced by political momentum for policy init

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2018

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Outstanding research into the genesis of the CO2 warming claims and the IPCC mechanisms leading to the concerning conclusion that the IPCC's consensus statements are to feed a global policy movement irrespective of the science. This should be read by any politician that believes IPCC 'consensus' pronouncements.

9 people found this helpful

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Lennart Bengtsson

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2018

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An excellent informative book on the political component of climate change

6 people found this helpful

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Raphael Ketani

Precursor events leading up to the IPCC

Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2018

The detailed description of the history of the environmental movement from its early beginnings in the mid-twentieth century was very enlightening. Once you have read the book the history of the present climate hysteria then makes sense. The author's descriptions of the people and the events was very clear and helpful to understanding the environmental movement and show that the corruption of science started very early. I recommend this book to everyone who is curious regarding how the whole global warming movement mess started.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

2101bob

How on earth did we get to this?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 7, 2018

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There have been numerous accounts of how we came to have the IPCC in its position of influence, and how AGW came to exist as a near-religion, in the West at any rate. Bernie Lewin takes us back to the start and traces the beginnings - through the original cooling and warming scares - and details the extraordinary paths which led to "climate change" becoming what it became.
Lewin lets the reader draw his own conclusions from the facts of who did what to promote the scientific and political movement, alongside the effects of the press in selecting what to report and how. One day this book will be very useful to historians unravelling the sad story of how "science" fooled us all, and pointing the fingers at key politicians and well-known scientists who enabled it.
Essential for outsiders wishing to get a grip on this baffling madness.

7 people found this helpful

Richard Tol

This is a useful addition to the stable of reflections on the IPCC ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2018

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This is a useful addition to the stable of reflections on the IPCC specifically and the science-policy interface more generally.

There are three problems, however.

First, Lewin embraces scientism, the odd belief that political action linearly and simply follows from scientific knowledge. In this case, Lewin argues that the science is insufficient for action, which is just as foolish as environmentalists arguing that the science demands action.

Second, Lewin argues that the science-policy interface for climate change was modelled on that for depletion of the ozone layer. He does not investigate alternative hypotheses. Others have argued the climate policy borrowed heavily from acidification policy.

Third, Lewin stops at the Second Assessment Report. The IPCC has substantially evolved since, for better and worse.

2 people found this helpful

J. K. Barnett

Hard going but an essential read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 18, 2020

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Took me a while to complete this book ... but it is well worth the time invested. It delivers exactly what it says on the tin. A clear and historic insight into the 'retarded intellect' that now pervades ALL conversation on climate change.

J D Gorman

history of climate change science

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 26, 2018

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A good detailed history from 1960 or so of the evolution of thought and knowledge culminating in the first strong suspicions in 1985 and the near universal agreement by 1995 and the setting up of the IPCC. Since then nothing has been achieved despite the increasing numbers of scientists working in the field.

One person found this helpful

Peter F Gill

A book for the open-minded

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2018

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Penetrating. Not recommended for those who get their exercise by jumping to conclusions especially that mankind has and is causing the current warm period on Earth.

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