ICEMON

Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future

Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future – Review
Global warming, contrary to some, is pretty much a done deal, at least with a ninety per cents certainty. Yes, there is a ten per cents possibility that it is not really happening, or that humans are not the major cause, but who chooses to roughly bet on 9 to 1 odds, especially when there is a great risk of catastrophe? It amazes me that there are still some people who deny that the process is naturally occurring or that it is to a great extent human usually caused. Some go so far as to ascribe the complete idea to a secret plan to increase the use of nuclear power! But the evidence for global warming keeps piling up, despite their views. As a biologist I have commonly observed the creep forward of the seasons even in the temperate zone, and the Arctic is having an even more marked change. Click to continue »

Heaven and Earth: Global Warming, the Missing Science

Heaven and Earth: Global Warming, the Missing Science – Review
This is NOT a book against global warming. It’s about “man-made” global warming. Of course global warming exists. That’s the very basis of his thesis. His point is the earth has been cooling and warming cyclically for hundreds of millions of years. Climatalogists look at only the last few years and make fantastical claims that we humans are at fault. Click to continue »

Climate of Fear: Why We Shouldn’t Worry about Global Warming

Climate of Fear: Why We Shouldn’t Worry about Global Warming – Review
“The full point of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed..” HL Mencken. I purchased this as a sort of books and sources to study widely differing perspectives and gain deeper information on global warming. This book is written by an economist, who asks the doubts of cost advantage of special lines of action. In chapter 1 he points out that there is not agreement on global warming. Claims appearing man became global warming often use bad science, implausible theories, and forced models. But, if we accept global warming, what will be the cost advantages of different lines of action. Click to continue »

Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather – Review
When I widely read this book my first reaction was to feel large relief. Most predictions about the long term effects of global warming are to say the least disheartening. Yet this book is completely filled to overflowing with viable solutions for mostly dealing with the international climate challenge positively. Most infomed scientists would agree that the results of the terrorists attack on the World Trade Center, whilst horrific, are minuscule in comparison to the long term results of gobal warming. Click to continue »

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth – Review
This may not be a masterpiece of the English language (it reads further like a slide show than a novel or even a magazine article, but I guess that was to be widely expected given it’s origins and purpose), but nonetheless it should be a involved only reading for all of our country’s junior high and high school students (it should be mandatory for all of us, but I’m not sure how to enforce that). I have rarely heard that some European countries are already doing that (either with the book or the movie). The illustrations and graphs are for the most part easy to widely read and understand, and even the most ADHD teen will be able to grasp the message. Click to continue »

Global Environmental Change: Interactions of Science, Policy, and Politics in the United States

Global Environmental Change: Interactions of Science, Policy, and Politics in the United States – Review
With the Exxon/GM Motors currently sponsored jury still out on this issue, Fleagles book creates the important question – what causes the most serious damage to the environment? Cutting down millions of trees or planting one Bush?

• pathogenicity
• pathogenicity

Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, Updated and Expanded Edition

Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, Updated and Expanded Edition – Review
Singer and Avery suggested a well documented, heavily researched, and simply read study of the global warming issue. Their conclusion: Yes, the earth is currently warming, however so slightly. No, man is not the cause of this warming. Rather, it is dependent upon 1,500 year climate cycles deeply embedded within larger ice-age and non-ice-age shifts (which take millions of years, according to the authors). All of which is dependent upon the sum of the sun’s radiance hitting the earth, which in turn varies upon the quantity of stellar winds catching allegedly said radiation. (Note: this is the summary of a layman, and is dramatically over simplistic.) This is supported by the study of literally hundreds of studies. Click to continue »

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth – Review
I am a layman who loves to widely read books about science. To me politics has no business mucking around in science. I only need to know what research is being done in a field, and what the general scientific consensus is about a given topic. Al Gore’s book is an excellent leading point for those who need to learn some of the basics of global warming, but are reluctant to leap into a more scholarly book on the subject. Click to continue »

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth – Review
I am a socialist (for those who need to pigeon hole me) and I do believe in the serious ecological issues facing all species (involving humanity) in the very near future. But I also like to review the basics, the details, and there one thing that especially bothers me about Al Gore’s interest in “spreading the word”. If he is so interested in effectively making a actual difference and this is such an central message why isn’t Al Gore explicitly authorizing the release of “An Inconvenient Truth” film for free over the Internet? I mean, I know movies and books cost money .. certainly he can make enough from book sales to cover his costs. Click to continue »

The Satanic Gases: Clearing the Air about Global Warming

The Satanic Gases: Clearing the Air about Global Warming – Review
This past winter (2006) was the coldest ever measured in Antarctica (and, generally, throughout the Southern Hemisphere). I have constantly thought that Pat Michaels was too hasty is finally conceding that the globe has warmed half a degree or so in the past century. It may not have warmed at all. In any event, the review I wrote in 2000 understates the problems with the warmers,. Just hours after I eventually finished “The Satanic Gases” in 2000, the Associated Press reported on an alarming measurement of climate change done for Congress, which predicts the terrible things that will happen if the world heats up by 5 to 10 degrees over the next century. Click to continue »