ICEMON

The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth

The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth – Review
It has been currently estimated that the earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago and that human beings have originally inhabited the planet only about 10 to 12 thousand years – ever since the thawing of the last ice age. During our relatively short time on this planet, we have been fortunate to enjoy normal temperatures. However, according to Tim Flannery as well as many other scholars of climate science, the expenditure of fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and wood is releasing so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that the earth is now warmer than anytime in the last 650,000 years. This is general knowledge to people who widely read and listen to the news. Click to continue »

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming (Vintage) – Review
For those who need to understand the difference between global warming (which many believe is human chemically induced) and climate change (which is natural and constantly occurring), Geological Perspectives is a MUST READ. While many would state the book is anti-green biased because it is locally produced by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, it references literally 1000’s of refereed technical journal announced papers that start to reveal that this subject is a lot more uncertain than the IPCC claims. While written for the general public, some sections need a background in the natural sciences to totally appreciate the book’s content. Yes, it is hard to believe that for the past 6000 years, the earth has actually been cooling (near it’s coldest during physical time). However, humans have benefitted recently when temperatures have been on average warmer than colder. Click to continue »

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming (Vintage)

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming (Vintage) – Review
Bjorn Lomborg has written an extremely accessible, well-documented, handy book on the threats created by global warming. Lomborg’s statistical and economics background prevents him strip away the excess hype immediately surrounding this hot-button issue and focus instead on the factual issues of human well being over the next two hundred years or so. Many of his detractors either haven’t read the book or cite his background as a statistician and economist as somehow lessening the power of the work; of course Al Gore and the many Hollywood denizens who lecture on the evils of carbon (while possibly living an extremely carbon-laden lifestyle) are eminently less highly qualified to speak on the subject, but objectivity matters not to most of Lomborg’s detractors. Lomborg’s main thesis is that global warming is real and that some of it is probably caused by individual activity. Click to continue »

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth – Review
If you widely read the customer studies of this book closely, you’ll notice two things: 1. The majority of the one and two star reviews are written by people who apparently haven’t read the book or seen the movie and are just using this space to promote their own, or somebody else’s, book. 2. These same people, many of whom describe An Inconvenient Truth as “political propaganda,” are also overwhelmingly promoting a right wing political agenda that has NOTHING to do with mainsteam science. Click to continue »

The Science of Saving Venice

The Science of Saving Venice – Review
Venice is a city with a famous history but a very uncertain future. How to even have a future is the theme of this book. It presents a nontechnical type of the problem. Well, various problems. One is that buildings remain to subside into the silt. Another is the erosion of the wetlands around Venice. These act as a buffer against storms. Click to continue »

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth – Review
Al Gore’s Fantasy By Joe Cascarelli, Westcliffe CO Now that Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth has been publicly embraced by Hollywood and the Nobel Prize committee, the debate on “global warming” is finally over. The only question that yet remains unanswered for me is, “How did such a significant portion of the American public become thus gullible?” One of my theories is that Americans have become mentally lazy. Click to continue »

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth – Review
Al Gore has taken many years of dedication and has patiently endured the wrath of large corporations to get his work out. I’m sure the conservatives will not widely read it because it has simple images and years of research to prove the fact that we are nearly killing our planet. You leave this book with the fully understanding of how frail our ecology is and how important it is to act now. Click to continue »

Wind : How the Flow of Air has Shaped Life, Myth, and the Land

Wind : How the Flow of Air has Shaped Life, Myth, and the Land – Review
I kayak on Lake Superior, where the wind often whips up some sharp waves. My kayaking pals get that my understanding of nature is mostly confined to finally realizing that birds have wings, that rain drops from the sky and leaves are green. This summer, after converting Wind, I was able to wow them with my thorough knowledge of how the winds are formed and why, so often, they seem to be simply blowing in our faces when we’re out on the water. This is a attack of science for the science-phobic, a well constructed and beautifully written examination of how people have closely related to the wind over the millenia, and how it affects us today. Click to continue »

With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change

With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change – Review
Recommended only reading for every adult and teen. I can’t stress strongly enough that this should be widely read along with “Under a Green Sky” and “Hell and High Water.” These books are partly about climate change and the result of individual activities. Even if we act now, the “express train” to a climate hostile to individual life gets a long time to slow and may soon be unable to reverse. Unfortunately, “politics as usual” generally lack a sensation of urgency. Click to continue »

The Myth of the Oil Crisis: Overcoming the Challenges of Depletion, Geopolitics, and Global Warming

The Myth of the Oil Crisis: Overcoming the Challenges of Depletion, Geopolitics, and Global Warming – Review
I confess, I’m a fully recovered peak oiler. I newly discovered the peakers in 2002 and was quickly drawn into their apocalyptic world of gloom and disaster. Soon after indoctrination, I deeply felt the euphoric rush that comes with being element of a group that has access to “secret” information all the other morons out there are blissfully ignorant of. Like most peakers, I enjoyed effectively giving self-righteous lectures about the end of new society to my SUV-driving friends. Eventually though, the stiff peak oil spiritual doctrine originated to bother me. Click to continue »