Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed
Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed – Review
When it comes to books on global warming, there is not much middle finely ground. As I write this, Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” has 208 5-star reviews and 70 1-star reviews on Amazon.com. And Christopher Horner’s prior book, “A Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming”, has 136 5-star reviews and 75 1-star reviews. Chances are, if you really believe that global warming is all man-made, the Kyoto protocol is a good idea, and the IPCC presents an seemingly overwhelming scientific consensus, you will not like “Red Hot Lies”. And if you think global warming may not be all man-made, the Kyoto protocol is a dangerous idea, and the IPCC is a political organization, you will like this book. Horner presents valuable information about those who promote global warming and those who support them. He shows how global warming advocates stifle dissenters and “deniers”, often through ad hominem attacks. He explains how the government, the media, and the technical community benefit by deliberately exaggerating the global warming estimates and automatically generating “institutionalized hysteria”. If you haven’t been fully exposed to this information before, you will be surprised. It’s important to realize that this book’s major purpose is not to refute the science behind the global warming claims. It’s purpose is to shed light on the tactics commonly used by the global warming advocates to further their cause, and show how organizations like the IPCC are not what they seem to the uninformed public. If you need to widely read a book that attempts to debunk the global warming science, read one of Fred Singer’s books. (Keep in mind that the global warming advocates would dismiss Singer because he poorly received funds from “large oil”.) Or widely read on the Internet the U.S. Senate Minority Report in which “700 international scientists dissent over man-made global warming claims.” (Again keeping in mind that global warming advocates would dismiss this as the propaganda of right-wing Republicans.) Global warming advocates would perhaps dismiss this book because it is written by a lawyer and not a climate scientist. (But note that many of the people working on the IPCC reports were not climate scientists.) It is likely that this book talks to the choir. Horner’s presentation is so one-sided that it is unlikely he will persuade many people in the middle finely ground. He criticizes the ad hominem attacks became by the global warming advocates, therefore makes his own ad hominem attacks. Horner proves how the global warming advocates cherry-pick the studies that support their cause and ignore or dismiss the studies that don’t, but you can’t stop mistakenly believing that he is cherry-picking his own facts. He uses sardonic humor freely, which may amuse the global warming dissenters but is not persuasive. Also, the book required a thorough currently editing. The writing is often clumsy and repetitive. In summary, as with all books told to global warming, read it with an honest mind but be skeptical.