Ian McEwan: Solar
Fri, Apr 9 2010 07:29
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This book has two features which differentiate it from the other books reviewed here: it is a novel and relatively unbiased on the topic of climate change.Ian McEwan is one of Britain’s leading novelists. In interviews he says that he accepts the scientific view that climate change is taking place as a result of human activity. Some newspapers also reported that he had delayed publication of ‘Solar’
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A. W. Montford: The Hockey Stick Illusion
Wed, Mar 31 2010 03:24
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If you’ve found this review you probably know the story but basically it is this. Temperatures before the middle of the 19th century can only be estimated indirectly from proxies: physically measurable characteristics of plants or animals which lived at earlier times and which respond to temperature changes. In 1999 a young climate researcher, Michael Mann, and colleagues published a paper in Nature
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Michael Mann and Lee Kump: Dire Predictions – Understanding Global Warming
Thu, Mar 25 2010 02:00
| Book Review, IPCC
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The Reader’s Digest magazine used to publish what they referred to as “unexpurgated abridgements.” By this they meant that they had left in the exiting bits and cut out the boring bits. This book could be considered an “unexpurgated abridgement” of the IPCC 2004 Technical Assessment Report. A lot of the detailed science has been left out but the elevated temperatures and other symptoms associated
Archer and Rahmstorf: The Climate Crisis - An introductory guide to climate change
Sat, Mar 6 2010 01:04
| Book Review, IPCC
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“I feel that it is important to not let bad, politically motivated science stand unchallenged.“ This is a quote we could all agree with and is part of the motivation behind our site. Only too often both ‘deniers’ and ‘warmists’ select a sub-set of the available science and then push it beyond reasonable limits to further their cause. Our mission is to sort out the justifiable from the
Nicholas Stern - "'A Blueprint for a Safer Planet"
Mon, Feb 8 2010 04:28
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This book could have equally have been called “A Blueprint for Copenhagen 2010”. Now, it might seem a bit unfair to comment on a book written before December 2010 in relation to what happened in that month. In Nicholas Stern’s case it is fully justified. As a former Chief Economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and of the World Bank and as the author of the UK government’s,
Book review: Bjorn Lomborg - Cool it: : The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming
Sun, Jan 10 2010 03:00
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“There is no plan B” was the mantra of the climate activists and politicians who gathered in Copenhagen in December 2009 to hammer out a new agreement to limit carbon emissions. They were wrong. There is a plan B and this book describes it.Although often called a ‘sceptic’ the appellation does not really apply to Bjorn Lomborg. He doesn’t dispute that global warming is real and is caused
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Book Review: Christopher Booker - The Global Warming Disaster
Sat, Jan 9 2010 05:30
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Christopher Booker is a columnist for the Telegraph (right of centre, highbrow). If there is a thread to his columns it is railing against abuses of authority and the resulting impact on individuals or (mostly small) businesses. If the authority stems from the EU then his invective steps up a gear. He is also the co-author of “Scared to Death” which looks at exaggerated scares, mainly but not
Book Review: Ian Plimer, "Heaven and Earth – global warming: the missing science"
Sat, Jan 9 2010 09:47
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I wish I could recommend this book, I really do. After all a book which gives an overview of climate change from the creation of the Earth up to the present, which cites 2311 (mainly peer reviewed) references and runs to over 500 pages can’t be all bad. Can it? Ian Plimer is both a distinguished geology professor and practicing geologist. As such he takes a long-term view of climate (billions of
Book Review: Fred Pearce, "The Last Generation: how nature will take her revenge for climate change"
Sat, Jan 9 2010 09:45
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Right from the start I had mixed feelings about this book. Fred Pearce is a science writer who I respect. Recently he published an article pointing out that there are reasons other than the risk of climate change for cutting back on the use of fossil fuels, citing their use for the production of artificial fertilisers. This corresponds to my own view which is that fossil fuels are a finite resource,
Book Review: Mike Hulme, "Why we disagree about climate change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity".
Sat, Jan 9 2010 09:37
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Whether you believe that tackling climate change is the biggest threat to our planet, or whether you think it is all a con to squeeze more taxes out of a gullible public, the reasons you put forward for holding your views are not the real ones. You hold to your views because it suits you. That, in a nutshell, is the thesis of Mike Hulme. He would probably (in fact, more than probably) be horrified