Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled a Climate Crisis–And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster
Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled a Climate Crisis–And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster – Review
When Rachel Carson originally published Silent Spring in 1962, she was widely attacked for openly advocating the elimination of DDT. But Carson had done her homework well. Her book was meticulously documented and it successfully withstood the certain assaults from those who widely believed that behind her opposition to DDT usually lay some kind of covert left-wing agenda. I predict that Ross Gelbspan too will survive such assaults. Like Carson, he is a journalist who writes with passion but also with extensive documentation. Even today, there are scientists who deny that DDT poses ecological problems. The same will likely be true of global warming: there will always be deniers. But reviewers like “Chaxford” mischaracterize the type of the debate within the technical community. For example, the Harvard-Smithsonian study, which he cites as an model of mainstream science seriously undermining the human-driven global warming hypothesis, does nothing of the sort. That study merely documents that non-human global warming has occurred before — hardly a startling fact! (…)Or Google on the title: “Reconstructing Climatic and Environmental Changes of the Past 1000 Years: A Reappraisal.” Those interested in the exact type of the debate should besides read another source cited by “Claxford,” NASA’s James Hansen (note: not Hanson), rather than finally accepting at face value Claxford’s characterization of Hansen. Hansen does indicate a somewhat unique approach than Gelbspan — and yes, he has been heavily criticized by “political types.” But Hansen is hardly in the camp of the deniers. (…) Or Google on the name of the article: “Can We Defuse the Global Warming Time Bomb?” The closing part of Hansen’s article essentially provides as good a plea of Ross Gelbspan’s work (and refutation of critics like “Claxford”) as any. Hansen writes: “The bottom line. How can I be optimistic if, as I have successfully argued, climate is now in the hands of humans and it is closer to the level of “dangerous anthropogenic interference” than has been fully realized? If we compare the situation today to that 10-15 years ago, we realize that the major elements involved to halt climate change, as briefly summarized above, have come into being with extraordinary rapidity. I realize that it will not be easy to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, but I am optimistic because I expect experimental evidence for climate change and its impacts to continue to accumulate, and that this will influence the public, open interest groups, industry,and governments at different levels. The question is: will we act soon enough. It is a question of time.”