Cool It

Former vice president Al Gore — excuse us, Oscar-winning documentarian, Nobel laureate, and shamelessly hypocritical mansion-dwelling, jet-setting energy pig Al Gore — says global warming is nothing short of a “planetary emergency” demanding elaborate and expensive actions that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars. But is the hysteria surrounding global warming rational? And would the solutions he has in mind make things better for mankind — or worse? Now, in “Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming,” noted environmental expert Bjorn Lomborg draws on extensive studies and analysis — including the UN’s most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report — to debunk numerous popular myths that are causing people to panic (and Al Gore to win prizes).

Lomborg — previously the author of the bestselling “The Skeptical Environmentalist,” and named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2004 — does believe that global warming is occurring, but not to the degree, or at the pace, that alarmists like Al Gore would have us believe. Nor are the consequences all bad — in fact, some are, and will be, very good, not only for our species but for others. The key, he believes, is to assess the facts and approach whatever problems need to be addressed in a rational way — which means not wasting all our energy and resources on Chicken Little hysteria when there are more pressing problems facing the world.

Cool It gives you the facts and documentation behind hundreds of “politically incorrect” revelations like these:

• Sea levels will rise about one foot over the next century, according to the UN’s 2007 IPCC report — the same rise that has occurred worldwide since 1860. A 20-foot rise, such as the one seen in An Inconvenient Truth, is hypothetical at best
• Global polar bear populations, contrary to environmentalists’ claims, are generally stable, and two populations around the Arctic Sea are actually growing. The most substantial drops in polar bear populations are a result of recreational hunting, not global warming
• The recent increase in impact from hurricanes and storms has nothing to do with global warming and everything to do with the rising concentrations of population and infrastructure in coastal areas. The data available today does not support unequivocal claims that global warming is worsening storms
• Though such global warming as may actually occur will mean more heat-related deaths — about 40,000 more in the United States in 2050 — there will also be 200,000 fewer cold deaths by then in the US.
• The Kyoto Protocol is both impossibly ambitious and environmentally inconsequential. It would cost $180 billion a year for the rest of the century but would only postpone global warming by five years in 2100.

“Brimming with useful facts and common sense”—Wall Street Journal

“Brilliant! A devastating critique of the prevailing climate change hysteria. This book provides an overwhelming case for re-assessing where exactly our policy priorities should lie if we are genuinely concerned with world welfare rather than with making noble–if futile–gestures that, at best, make us feel good but actually do a lot of harm.” —Wilfred Beckerman, professor emeritus of economics, Oxford University

“A highly valuable contribution to the climate-policy literature. In clear and concise prose, Lomborg diagnoses the problems plaguing contemporary climate policy, injecting a needed tonic of realism and common sense into the climate debate. And for that very reason, it is sure to make Lomborg’s critics hot-under-the-collar.” — Jonathan Adler, National Review

“Bjorn Lomborg is the best-informed and most humane advocate for environmental change in the world today. … [He] is only interested in real problems, and he has no patience with media fear-mongering…. In the end, his ability to put climate in a global perspective is perhaps the book’s greatest value. Lomborg and Cool It are our best guides to our shared environmental future.” — Michael Crichton, bestselling novelist

“Lomborg affirms that the planet is warming, but questions why so much of the policy debate is framed around the idea of imminent catastrophe. This book dares to offer straightforward new thinking about how best to respond. Indispensable.” — Clive Crook, associate editor, Financial Times; senior editor, The Atlantic Monthly

“At last we have a book that puts the hype of global warming into perspective.? Bjorn Lomborg’s eye-opening book, Cool It, examines and meticulously documents climate change’s effects and proposed solutions. An extraordinarily timely and supremely useful book.” —John Naisbitt, author of Megatrends

Tags: Bjorn Lomborg, Cool It