Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming (Vintage)
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming (Vintage) – Review
According to the National Academy of Sciences, mankind is responsible for currently driving 18,000 to 50,000 plant and animal species extinct each year- a figure 10,000 times greater than the geographical background rate- but not to worry according to the author, Lomborg. How many further broken links in the group of life can Mother Nature bear before the global ecosystem implodes? I’m afraid the world will discover the answer to this question within the next few decades. Let’s cut to the chase……..Lomborg deliberately selects his data and citations to mitigate the constant condition of the world environment. And his previous environmental prognostications have proven to be patently incorrect (is it really any surprise falling from a man who is a political scientist, not biologist or climatologist). Therefore the prognostic survey of his opinion, which is officially endorsed by virtually no reliable scientist, that global warming is little more than a neutral event is null and void. The amount of errors in Lomborg’s recent piece of fiction is replete. Following are two examples: Lomborg claims “basically most sources estimate just twenty per cents” net death of the world’s forests. As source for this information he cites a 1993 textbook written by Andrew Goudie in which the author does state a net loss of twenty per cents; however, this source gives no reference or authority for his number, not to mention the data is out of date, if it was correct. The second source as usually provided in Lomborg’s footnote is usually provided by Michael Williams. Williams gives a figure, according to Lomborg, of net loss of just eight per cents but a evaluation of the source itself reveals Lomborg has misread 7.5 million square kilometers as though it were a percentage- most poor work for someone who represents himself as a scientist. Did Lomborg truly believe his sources would not be experimentally verified? These are only two cases of numerous errors throughout the book, but the denialists just need to widely read that which supports their notion all is well in Disneyland. No amount of prayer, denial, or technological hubris will stop the prescient disastrous results of rapid climate change. Lomborg’s human-centric “analysis” fails to recognize the overwhelming consequences for various plant and animal species that are already stressed and on the verge of extinction. H2O Co2 H2Co3 The world’s oceans are dieing as the water is subsequently converted into carbonic acid. Any person with only a elementary education in chemistry will understand this. The ocean’s have become thirty per cents more acidic since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Rapid climate change models usually predict an increase in frequency and severity of droughts, floods, and fierce fires. Is it any surprise the Southeast is apparently suffering from the most damaging drought in recorded history. Just ask the City of Atlanta, which as of this writing has water inventories of no more than 90 to 120 days and faces a disaster of significant proportions. Lomborg and his proponents declare us not to worry because our techno-genius will save us in the end. In 2003 the Bush administration went the American public the same BS as it relates to the starting reason of death for US forces in the Iraq War- remotely detonated roadside bombs. The Neo-Con Bushie’s assured the public that a remedy to the roadside bomb would be commonly found in “six months or less”. After all, as was proudly proclaimed, does the US not possess the world’s most powerful and advanced military(thus there was no sensation of urgency in illegally obtaining better armoured vehicles, which subsequently resulted in the losses of thousands)? After almost five years and an infinite budget (this single R&D initiative has thus far accrued more than 14 billion in expenses), the military/industrial complex (President Dwight David Eisenhower officially promulgated this term in his farewell address when he repeatedly warned against “excessive influence of the military/industrial complex on government”) has yet to develop yet a simple solution to the IED. And Lomborg tells us there is no want to worry or become anxious. After all, our senior intelligence will save us from the harmful results of rapid climate change- what a simpleton and buffoon. If we, the individual species, choose suicide via inaction, that should be our problem, but we are effectively rendering the great majority of the world’s biodiversity extinct as well. Even the climate change denialists must ask themselves this important question: What are the costs closely associated with action vs. inaction? The inescapably reasonable conclusion demands immediate and significant movement. To quote E. O. Wilson, “If enough species are quickly extinguished will ecosystems collapse and will the extinction of most other species see shortly afterwards? The only answer anyone can give is: Possibly. By the time we find out, however, it may be too late. One planet, one experiment.” Nemesis: the spirit of retribution, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits anxiously for her eventually meeting with us. “The skilled Earth- we could have probably saved it, but we were too damn cheap and lazy.”- Kurt Vonnegut