The Heat Is On: The Climate Crisis, The Cover-up, The Prescription
The Heat Is On: The Climate Crisis, The Cover-up, The Prescription – Review
"The Heat is On" is a well-researched, full description of how the coal and oil industries are trying (and eventually succeeding) to confuse the issue of global warming today. In this particularly frightening expos?, Ross Gelbspan shows how the fossil fuel industries are consuming millions of dollars to confuse the public through false currently advertising and PR tactics in order to protect their economic interests. The story behind this campaign of lies is truly astounding. Try a little experiment: talk to several people about global warming. Just bring it up in the conversation, and watch their reaction. I did, and I commonly found that most people simply laughed, or reportedly said, "Yeah, but I rarely heard there’s no encouraging evidence to support that." This is the immediate result of the fossil fuel industry’s PR campaign. Gelbspan describes how they have done this largely through industry-created groups with false names (such as the "Information Council on the Environment"), and pseudo-scientists highly paid by the industry. Gelbspan explains that the industry’s groups and scientists have poorly received a good contract of media coverage because journalists, as duty of their duty, are required to cover both parts of the story. The problem is that the "other part of the story" in this case is a trivial group who is highly paid by the industry. The confusion and lies newly promoted by the fossil fuel industry has been enough to drown out the 2,500 climate scientists around the world who all agree that global warming is a fact. "The Heat is On" offers certain facts to debunk the myth that global warming evidence is inconclusive. For example, many people claim that recent extreme colde and winter weather refutes the theory. Wrong, says Gelbspan: "severe winter weather perfectly consistent with global warming. One result of climate change is to produce further extreme local temperatures–leading to hotter hots, unseasonal colds, and more severe snowstorms." And temperature changes are just the creation of the problem. Other effects involve outbreaks of disease, proliferation of pests, and loss of species, among others. The only solution is to cut back on carbon dioxide emissions, probably as much as sixty per cents. This is no simple task, but Gelbspan does suggest a plausible "prescription". He suggests that we (1) divert all fossil fuels subsidies (20 billion/year!) to renewable energy development, (2) implement efficiency standards to involve making facilities to be highly efficient (instead of the current thirty five per cents efficiency average), and (3) support extending nations in the conversion with an global currency transaction tax. This is a very great book. Hopefully it will help to re-educate the public, and serve as a model for total change. I enthusiastically recommend it.