false 384311 5 <b>Amazon.com Guest Reviewer: Michael Crichton</b><br/> In his many science-themed bestsellers--including <i>The Andromeda Strain</i>, <i>Jurassic Park</i>, <i>Prey</i>, and most recently, <i>Next</i>--Michael Crichton has covered everything from genetically engineered dinosaurs to time travel to nantechnology run amok. Having cast his own views on the dangers and hysteria surrounding global warming with <i>State of Fear</i>, he turns his pen toward the often controversial Bjørn Lomborg and his latest book, <i>Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming</i>. <br/><br/> <hr class="bucketDivider" noshade="true" size="1"> <br/><br/> <img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0061015733.01-A1DI3XXAD7CH18.MZZZZZZZ.jpg" border="0" align="left"/> <img src="http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/promos/a-plus/mc_by_jonathan_exley.jpg" border="0" align="left"/> Bjørn Lomborg is the best-informed and most humane advocate for environmental change in the world today. In contrast to other figures that promote a single issue while ignoring others, Lomborg views the globe as a whole, studies all the problems we face, ranks them, and determines how best, and in what order, we should address them. His first book, <i>The Skeptical Environmentalist</i>, established the importance of a fact-based approach. With later books, <i>Global Crises, Global Solutions</i> and <i>How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place</i>, this mild-mannered Danish statistician has steadily gained new converts. Not surprisingly, <i>Time</i> Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. <p/> <i>Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming</i> will further enhance Lomborg's reputation for global analysis and thoughtful response. For anyone who wants an overview of the global warming debate from an objective source, this brief text is a perfect place to start. Lomborg is only interested in real problems, and he has no patience with media fear-mongering; he begins by dispatching the myth of the endangered polar bears, showing that this Disneyesque cartoon has no relevance to the real world where polar bear populations are in fact increasing. Lomborg considers the issue in detail, citing sources from Al Gore to the World Wildlife Fund, then demonstrating that polar bear populations have actually increased five fold since the 1960s. <p/> Lomborg then works his way through the concerns we hear so much about: higher temperatures, heat deaths, species extinctions, the cost of cutting carbon, the technology to do it. Lomborg believes firmly in climate change--despite his critics, he's no denier--but his fact-based approach, grounded in economic analyses, leads him again and again to a different view. He reviews published estimates of the cost of climate change, and the cost of addressing it, and concludes that "we actually end up paying more for a partial solution than the cost of the entire problem. That is a bad deal." <p/> In some of the most disturbing chapters, Lomborg recounts what leading climate figures have said about anyone who questions the orthodoxy, thus demonstrating the illiberal, antidemocratic tone of the current debate. Lomborg himself takes the larger view, explaining in detail why the tone of hysteria is inappropriate to addressing the problems we face. <p/> In the end, Lomborg's concerns embrace the planet. He contrasts our concern for climate with other concerns such as HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, and providing clean water to the world. In the end, his ability to put climate in a global perspective is perhaps the book's greatest value. Lomborg and <i>Cool It</i> are our best guides to our shared environmental future. <p/> --Michael Crichton <p/> (photo credit: Jonathan Exley) <br/><br/> <hr class="bucketDivider" noshade="true" size="1"> 374053 2007 Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming total:163|5:38|4:57|3:50|2:11|1:7| 163 597 336 59 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 1 9 false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Mar 15 01:34:31 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 01:56:02 -0700 2009 more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 1 2 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 30 18:57:37 -0800 2007 Tue Jan 22 21:39:21 -0800 2008
Not wanting to condemn it without reading Lomborg's position first, I made a valiant effort to read this all the way through, but gr...more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 0 2 false Thu Dec 18 16:44:55 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 18 16:46:07 -0800 2008
Lomborg is not a "cli...more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 1 1 true Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 24 06:33:04 -0700 2008 Thu May 08 06:25:59 -0700 2008
I'm not even halfway through this book yet, and I'm already ranting about it. Not a good sign.

Look, Mr. Bjorn whatever-your-name-is, I agree with your overall argument. I do, I really do. And I think you make some important points about how to think a...more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 1 1 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 24 19:24:47 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 24 19:35:03 -0800 2008 heat waves as the climate changes. The fact that he wastes so much space of his small book on such a non-mainstream argument takes away from the validity of his...more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 4 2 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 20 16:10:30 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 20 16:14:52 -0800 2008 more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 5 0 false Tue Feb 17 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 14:07:06 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 14:56:33 -0800 2009 more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 2 1 false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 01 21:00:02 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 12 11:17:55 -0700 2007 more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 5 1 false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 10 08:50:06 -0800 2007 Sat Jan 05 07:52:41 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2237701 030738652X 9780307386526 14 3 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2237701.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 3 0 false Thu Oct 08 21:19:28 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 21:24:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 2 1 false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Aug 09 21:21:16 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 09 21:23:26 -0700 2008 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 4 0 false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 26 20:53:06 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 26 20:57:45 -0700 2009
Lomborg's tip for saving polar bears?
How about, if you are really worried about polar bear populations, instead of fretting about the 4 possibl...more...]]> 2237701 030738652X 9780307386526 14 3 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2237701.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 4 0 false Wed Jun 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 05 20:13:26 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 18:08:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 3 0 false Wed Nov 05 12:37:47 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 05 12:52:45 -0800 2008 more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 4 0 false Thu Sep 04 20:13:28 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 04 20:31:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 3 0 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat May 03 17:51:40 -0700 2008 Sat May 03 18:11:08 -0700 2008 more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 3 0 false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 10 09:56:03 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 10 10:07:26 -0700 2007
Lomborg acknowledges that we're causing the environment to heat up, but argues that the response to this issue has be...more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 2 0 false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Sep 13 10:14:59 -0700 2007 Tue Dec 04 16:32:18 -0800 2007
In spite of his desire to help us find a more rational approach to how to solve the problems created by ...more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 5 0 false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Sep 23 07:23:20 -0700 2007 Sun Mar 02 07:31:46 -0800 2008 more...]]> 384311 0307266923 9780307266927 148 55 3.66 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384311.Cool_It_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist_s_Guide_to_Global_Warming 5 0 false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 08 17:13:50 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 17:21:24 -0700 2009 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story......more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=384311