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Customer Review
The Madhouse Effect pulls the curtain back to expose the PR machine of climate denial that's corrupting our democracy
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2016
In 1998, a mild-mannered, somewhat naive young scientist named Michael Mann teamed up with two others and published the results of their research. In retrospect, it seemed obvious: correlate tree rings from ancient trees with available temperature records to create a model using math and statistics that could estimate temperature records dating much farther back in time. It was like truing an arrow along a known path and then shooting it back over a millennium. But the resulting chart became iconic in a way Mann could never have expected: it simply and effectively illustrated for the public what was happening: global temperatures were spiking, creating a shape that looked like a hockey stick lying along its handle.
Mann wasn't necessarily looking for this result; he was simply interested in climate variability over time. But the data was striking, and the publication of that chart caught the world's attention, instantly putting him at odds with the most powerful vested interests of our time: the global energy industry, who sought to destroy him. Since then, Mann has been the focal point of nearly two decades worth of industry-aligned attacks seeking to discredit his chart, his statistics, his science, and his personal reputation as part of the largest anit-science public relations effort in world history. And let it be known: not only has the hockey stick stood the test of time; it's been reconfirmed dozens of times by unrelated teams of scientists using other proxy data, and extended much farther back in time.
Now Mann is using simply, easy-to-grasp graphics once again: this time to show the public what is really happening with the science of climate change, and with the politics and public-relations campaigns of denial that seek to discredit it with a single purpose in mind: to forestall or prevent regulations or legislations limiting carbon emissions by undermining the public's confidence in the data from science underlying all such proposals. In short, the short-circuiting of democracy.
The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy, by Michael Mann and cartoonist Tom Toles pulls the curtain back on the climate denial machine that is corrupting our media, our politics, and our public conversation for the benefit of a very wealthy few, and, using simple (and funny) graphics, helps chart a vision of a path forward as illuminating as the hockey stick's look backward.
Mann wasn't necessarily looking for this result; he was simply interested in climate variability over time. But the data was striking, and the publication of that chart caught the world's attention, instantly putting him at odds with the most powerful vested interests of our time: the global energy industry, who sought to destroy him. Since then, Mann has been the focal point of nearly two decades worth of industry-aligned attacks seeking to discredit his chart, his statistics, his science, and his personal reputation as part of the largest anit-science public relations effort in world history. And let it be known: not only has the hockey stick stood the test of time; it's been reconfirmed dozens of times by unrelated teams of scientists using other proxy data, and extended much farther back in time.
Now Mann is using simply, easy-to-grasp graphics once again: this time to show the public what is really happening with the science of climate change, and with the politics and public-relations campaigns of denial that seek to discredit it with a single purpose in mind: to forestall or prevent regulations or legislations limiting carbon emissions by undermining the public's confidence in the data from science underlying all such proposals. In short, the short-circuiting of democracy.
The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy, by Michael Mann and cartoonist Tom Toles pulls the curtain back on the climate denial machine that is corrupting our media, our politics, and our public conversation for the benefit of a very wealthy few, and, using simple (and funny) graphics, helps chart a vision of a path forward as illuminating as the hockey stick's look backward.
