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The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World
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The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Whether Right or Wrong, An Honest Attempt
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This is the kind of book about which everyone is guaranteed to have a strong opinion.
By "everyone" I also mean to include those who have not ever read it. There will be those, hostile to the environmentalist movement, who will take the book's very existence as proof that there's no cause for any alarm (and maybe that there is no such thing as Global Warming). There will also be those, sympathetic to the environmentalist movement, who will not trouble themselves to read Lomborg's material, but will instead scour the web to find and then recite "refutations" of Lomborg's claims. To that person, it will count as a complete "refutation" if a climatologist somewhere (who may or may not have read the book himself) says that the book has made an error in one of its hundreds of references.
Actual readers of the book, who will undoubtedly feel strongly about it too (one way or the other), will at least know that Lomborg treats the matters of discussion fairly, and with integrity. I am sure that there are parts in which he errs -- I think Lomborg would easily agree to that, too -- but it is clear from both his tone and also the exhaustive and impressive depth of his research and presentation that his errors are honestly made.
Libertarians looking to adopt the work ought to know that Lomborg does not say that there is no Global Warming. Rather, he concedes that point, and points out that there are often negative consequences to problems in our environment, including Global Warming. Instead, Lomborg intends to measure the scope of these problems via scientific data, and compare their projected costs against the costs of taking other measures to combat them. He also makes the claim that, in general, things are actually getting better in the world, not worse. He does so step by step, issue by issue, datum by datum. We might be uncomfortable with such a conclusion, for whatever reason, but Lomborg's argument is substantial.
Whether Lomborg is ultimately right about every statistic he cites, and every conclusion he reaches, (and it would be remarkable if he were), this book is a thorough discussion of relevant information about a host of topics related to environmentalism. Lomborg speaks with an honest voice, and this book ought to be read by all those with a true interest in environmental policy, and a belief that true understanding means understanding all sides of a given story.
Four stars, instead of five, for being a bit too repetitious and dry at times. Still -- very readable, given that statistical analysis can be fairly dull. |
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