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Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media Kindle Edition
- ISBN-13978-1930865594
- PublisherCato Institute
- Publication dateOctober 1, 2004
- LanguageEnglish
- File size5561 KB
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From Publishers Weekly
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From the Inside Flap
James K. Glassman, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
"Pat Michaels has written another fascinating and useful book. . . . I urge everyone, regardless of the extent of his science background, to read Meltdown. But be prepared to change your way of thinking. Just let go of your preconceived ideas, strap yourself in, and enjoy the ride!"
George H. Taylor, Past President, American Association of State Climatologists
"Patrick Michaels fully exploits his incomparable wit and credentialed expertise to dismantle the claim that catastrophic climate change is upon us. Using dozens of examples, this working-stiff climatologist exposes the exaggerations and outright falsehoods promoted by a media industry hungry for if it bleeds, it leads stories."
John R. Christy, Director, Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama at Huntsville
From the Back Cover
"Pat Michaels has written another fascinating and useful book. . . . I urge everyone, regardless of the extent of his science background, to read Meltdown. But be prepared to change your way of thinking. Just let go of your preconceived ideas, strap yourself in, and enjoy the ride!" George H. Taylor, Past President, American Association of State Climatologists
"Patrick Michaels fully exploits his incomparable wit and credentialed expertise to dismantle the claim that catastrophic climate change is upon us. Using dozens of examples, this working-stiff climatologist exposes the exaggerations and outright falsehoods promoted by a media industry hungry for if it bleeds, it leads stories." John R. Christy, Director, Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama at Huntsville
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Product details
- ASIN : B001D71DNW
- Publisher : Cato Institute (October 1, 2004)
- Publication date : October 1, 2004
- Language : English
- File size : 5561 KB
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- Sticky notes : Not Enabled
- Print length : 208 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,455,456 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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Michaels gives many examples of supposedly scientific conclusions about global warming are really a closed loop of closed minds who exclude any evidence that questions the reasons behind global climate changes.
Are there holes in the Arctic sea ice in the summer.? Yes, but they have always shrunk and expanded over millions of years. Is the Antarctic getting warmer or colder? Yes and no, depending on which part of this vast area you are measuring. Are CO2 levels increasing? Yes, but they are no where close to historical levels reached many times in the past. Polar bears on the verge of extinction? Not when the truth is that there are more of them now than at any other time in history (and eating those cute little fur seals in record numbers, no less.)
The list of currently held myths are dealt with in a very objective fashion, backed up by real research, and showing the earth to be a very complicated system, which is not very well understood. Michaels does a great job of showing that many of the things we think we understand about climate change are really not what you read in the newspapers.
If you are looking for a book that deals with the many arguments used in the global climate change debate in a fair and objective way, this is the best of the lot. But of course Michaels is attacked because he does not rely on tax money for a living, unlike the hundreds of thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, media people and their ilk who flood the world with hysterical stories about the end of the world due to global warming when the evidence is quite to the contrary.
The irony of course is that many who see a great conspiracy in those who question the reasons behind climate change somehow blame "big oil" for asking questions about a supposedly finished debate. They obviously have failed to notice, as Michaels has, that most advertising by "big oil" today is to embrace the agenda of the Gores of the world so that they can make even more money trading "carbon credits" which do nothing to reduce air pollution, and not have to spend a dime for oil exploration.
Yes, NATURAL global warming and NATURAL global cooling has existed throughout the history of the earth. Michaels does an oustanding job of showing long-term data trends (pre-massive industrialization in the post- WOrld War II period, pre-petroleum age, and even from before the industrial revolution in some instances) that indicate climate changes are cyclic, or in some locations, cooling, and in some locations, warming. He analyzes each of the global warming arguments with factual analyses and scientific principles in a sobering manner. His data cast doubts on so-called climate model projections and the so-called overwhelming effect of anthrogenic influences. In short, the sky is NOT falling.
Michaels also is to be commended for showing how flawed governmental policies have driven global warming science, and the associated conflict of interest invoving funding and publication. He exposes serious flaws in the so-called journal peer-review system that are obvious to relevant scientists.
Frankly, his funding sources from ExxonMobil and his "neo-con" leanings have NOTHING to do with the outcomes described in his book. What he does is expose the flawed science in global warming studies using scientific prrinciples that are independent of financial sources for his research and his perceived political leanings.
This is an excellent book with realism that policy makers must be required to read before caving in to the policies and hype of nihilism and defeatism advocated by the global warming crowd.
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Michaels' hypothesis is in fact the restatement, updating and specific application (to global warming theory) of an earlier one - that of Thomas Kuhn, who published "The structure of scientific revolutions" back in 1962. Kuhn defined a paradigm as a body of knowledge that defined the problems and methods of research for succeeding generations of practitioners. The problem, Kuhn and Michaels argue, is that paradigms become self-referential: they solve the problems defined by their creators as being most acute, presumably ignoring other issues, they bring together people of a like mind, and once a scientist has begun to subscribe to a particular paradigm he or she will probably do so for the rest of his or her life. The concept of a scientific paradigm is worsened, Michaels argues, by the effect of the state funding of science (since WW2).
Michaels, who is a climatologist and "environmental" scientist, argues that man-made global warming, and that it is out of control, has, since the 1980s, become the prevailing paradigm (or as the IPCC calls it, the "consensus") and in so doing has made it more and more difficult for those who believe differently. The first 219 pages, needless to say, pick holes in the flawed science of those scientists who are working to demonstrate the validity of the paradigm and the exaggerations of politicians and publications that support it. He does so in a humorous and, to my mind, credible way, although whether you will agree will depend rather on what your own paradigm is! Chapters focus on icecaps, hurricanes, droughts and floods, disease. He is highly critical of lapses in what ought to be basic peer-review in major scientific journals.
Michaels has three recommendations; while these are written in the American context, they probably hold true in the UK and Europe as well:
1. To break the government monopoly of the funding of science - and so to eliminate the problem of such funding being devoted exclusively in support of one paradigm or another.
2. To change the peer-review structure, by requiring that reviewers' names, and a synopsis of their views, are stated on published papers.
3. To abolish academic tenure - i.e. the security of employment that academics may receive after a few years
This book is published by the Cato Institute - a libertarian organisation based in the US. Michaels is himself, in all probability - a libertarian - i.e. he believes in making markets as free as possible, and in reducing the role of governments as far as possible. Not everyone will find that a comfortable concept, irrespective of their understanding of global warming, but I would have thought that everyone could agree to his second proposal - "peer-review" is a much hallowed phrase of the AGW lobby!
Is Prof Michaels a global warming "denier" as such? This is the paradigm that he supports:
"The earth's surface temperature is influenced by human activity, and changes that are being measured today are largely consequences of that activity. We know, to a very small range of error, the amount of future climate change for the foreseeable future, and it is a modest value to which humans have adapted and will continue to adapt. There is no known, feasible policy that can stop or even slow these changes in a fashion that could be scientifically measured."
My reading of the rest of the book is that he thinks that human activity may, at worst, be having a small effect on the climate, but that it is not large. I do recommend that you read this book. I shall have to turn my attention to Thomas Kuhn!
