"False Alarm" Should Be Required Reading

     I would not give five stars to a work that contains a fundamental error, but "False Alarm" is so pertinent that everyone on Earth should read this book. Whether climate change skeptic or alarmist, there is much that both sides will find valuable and useful, but before I indulge in fulsome praise Mr. Lomborg does have a fundamental flaw in his presentation: being ignorant of or overlooking thousands of prior periods of natural climate change that warmed Earth far more than even the most unlikely climate model forecast. If while reading "False Alarm" you mentally eliminate all of the scenarios of human actions to causes and combat climate change, the rest of his presentation becomes even stronger and timely. One word it sums up: adaptation. 

     Personally, I would like to take Mr. Lomborg and the rest of the world into the light of reason and science by debating; Proposition: climate change is natural and always has been. The obvious result is triumph for the affirmative and then Mr. Lomborg's positions on economic progress such as improved education, innovation, and health becomes foundations for the rapid and dramatic betterment of humankind. This would place Mr. Lombard in the company of the greatest humanitarian of all, who he mentions, Norman Borlaug. Leadership like theirs validates optimism for us all.

Before Michael Shellenberger "Saw The Light"

Break Through: Why We Can't Leave Saving the Planet to Environmentalists by Ted Nordhaus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is extremely well written and contains a lot of information about climate change that the author now completely repudiates in "Apocalypse Never." I was intrigued by his former position on wind turbines, particularly on the failed Cape Wind project, compared to his present understanding of the waste and futility of wind, solar, and biomass energy generation. Just to say "he saw the light" would be to understate the brilliance of his transformation. Still, this book is so well written and original, and his treatment of limit-constricted environmentalists so accurate, that it should be read after reading "Apocalypse Never" to give the reader an appreciation of the thought that has gone into both endeavors.


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Apocalypse Never - Everyone Should Read

Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All by Michael Shellenberger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is must reading for everyone, but particularly environmentalists. Each concept - energy generation, plastic waste, adaptation, natural disasters, prosperity vs. preservation, and many others - are treated clearly and thoroughly, with copious footnotes. Of particular interest is Shellenberger's treatment of environmentalism as religion substitute, where each can feel that they by doing some small thing are performing heroic service to the world. He contrasts that with the needs of poor people to gain enjoyment and meaning from their lives, not be inhabitants of an elites' back to the-way-it-was vision of earthly paradise. He shows how agricultural modernization using machinery, fertilizers, and GMOs create food surpluses while freeing people to stop being low production farmers and to be city workers and dwellers. The economic clarity of his illustrations are among the most valuable contributions of this book to approaching and solving the environment of panic created and spread by environmental alarmists. Malthus, Ehrlich, McKibbins are all honored by the left and are all monumentally wrong. Shellenberger gives them the attention they deserve.


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