Product Description

Includes essays by Nobel Laureate Dr. Norman E. Borlaug and other noted scientists and scholars
The modern environmental movement began with the publication of three seminal works, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, and the Club of Rome's The Limits to Growth. These books' dismal visions of a poisoned, over-populated, resource-depleted world spiraling down toward environmental collapse are today's conventional wisdom. And every year we hear about new "conclusive" reports from special interest groups claiming that our atmosphere's temperatures are soaring, our air and water are more polluted, our cities are more crowded, and our global food supply is more precarious than ever before. However, according to a number of leading scientists from around the world, members of the environmental movement are guilty of twisting—sometimes manufacturing—the facts in an effort to frighten people into joining their cause.
In this eye-opening book, some of the most respected researchers in the country explode the myths behind much of the doom and gloom of today's environmental movement. You will discover how the hysteria about global warming, overpopulation, mass extinctions, imminent famines, biotechnology, energy shortages, and more are grounded not in reason but in false science and a fear of progress. When placed beside the overwhelming facts, some of the most pervasive eco-myths crumble, including:
Myth:
Antarctica is melting due to global warming—threatening to raise ocean levels
Fact:
Antarctica has been cooling—and its glaciers thickening—for the past 30 years
Myth:
The global population is growing faster than our ability to produce food
Fact:
Global fertility rates are falling dramatically, and with advanced technology, farmers are producing more food using fewer resources than ever before
Myth:
Solar- and wind-powered generators are a renewable, efficient, and less intrusive alternative to gas-, oil-, and coal-burning generators
Fact:
Global fossil fuel supplies are in no near-term danger of being depleted, and a single 555-megawatt natural gas power plant produces more electricity than 13,000 windmills
Myth:
Modern pesticides and fertilizers are increasing the rates of cancer in humans
Fact:
No study has ever shown that anyone has developed cancer from the legal application of pesticides, and environmental pollution accounts for at most 2 percent of all cancer cases versus 30 percent caused by tobacco use
And many more
Ultimately, this book shows that uniting much of the environmental movement is an agenda that is not so much anti-pollution as it is anti-human. Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths lays out the true state of the planet, which, as you'll discover, is more healthy, vibrant, and clean than ideologically motivated environmentalists want you to believe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #338333 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-24
• Released on: 2002-09-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Review
Praise for Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths
"Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths challenges the tired orthodoxies of ideological environmentalism. It's refreshing to read that there is no environmental 'cancer epidemic,' that climatologist John Christy says there is no imminent global warming catastrophe, and that Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug predicts that we will be able to feed 10 billion people using less land. If market forces are unleashed, even drinking water can last forever. I just wish the environmentalists would read Bailey's book." — John Stossel, ABC News 20/20
"Facts are stubborn things, and Ronald Bailey has once again assembled the best environmental fact-checkers in the business to explode the common misconceptions and distortions about the real state of our planet." — Steven Hayward, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute, and author of the Index of Leading Environmental Indicators
"A stunning riposte to the eco-alarmists. Beyond debunking environmentalist scare mongering, Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths is the clearest explanation in print of the promise that eco-friendly technology offers to the human race. A must read for anyone who wants to know how we can build a healthy world environment for our children and grandchildren." — Denis Dutton, editor of Arts & Letters Daily on the Web and professor, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

From the Back Cover
Praise for Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths
"Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths challenges the tired orthodoxies of ideological environmentalism. It's refreshing to read that there is no environmental 'cancer epidemic,' that climatologist John Christy says there is no imminent global warming catastrophe, and that Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug predicts that we will be able to feed 10 billion people using less land. If market forces are unleashed, even drinking water can last forever. I just wish the environmentalists would read Bailey's book." — John Stossel, ABC News 20/20
"Facts are stubborn things, and Ronald Bailey has once again assembled the best environmental fact-checkers in the business to explode the common misconceptions and distortions about the real state of our planet." — Steven Hayward, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute, and author of the Index of Leading Environmental Indicators
"A stunning riposte to the eco-alarmists. Beyond debunking environmentalist scare mongering, Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths is the clearest explanation in print of the promise that eco-friendly technology offers to the human race. A must read for anyone who wants to know how we can build a healthy world environment for our children and grandchildren." — Denis Dutton, editor of Arts & Letters Daily on the Web and professor, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

About the Author
Ronald Bailey, science correspondent for Reason magazine and author of ECOSCAM: The False Prophets of Ecological Apocalypse, is an adjunct scholar with the Competitive Enterprise Institute a nonprofit public policy organization in Washington, D.C. A member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, he is the producer of several documentaries for PBS television and ABC News, and his articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Forbes, National Review, Commentary, and numerous other publications. Mr. Bailey lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Unwanted truths
A cursory reading of the available (negative) comments to this piece of literature will reveal that research which criticizes the common environmentalist dogma is not recieved well. Preparing for slaughter some of the holy cows of "leftist environmentalism" is always met with an enraged outcry. In the eyes of your average environmentalist, the book does not support the preferred truth, and as such it must betrashed with a miserable rating. The author has dared question the most cherish beliefs of the "green wing", and for that he must be denounced as a puppet of BIG BUSINESS. All the usual ammo are brought forth - how the author is really an uncaring "rightwinger", how he is twisting and omitting facts to suit an anti-environmentalist agenda, and how he is generally a Bad Person (tm).

On a more serious note, this book is necessary and important to read because it dares to deal a blow to the mindless "environmentalist" dogma which is so common in this day and age.

What is important to grasp in the environmental context is that if the greens are allowed to propagate their opinions without qualified critique, we run the risk that the real problems with the environment are ignored, while the apparent problems that are blown into the public sphere by help of the many heavy buzzwords steal the show. And if that happens (which most indication point at at the moment), then the environment will be the true loser, despite the fact that it has recieved so much attention. The superficial problems will recieve priority and the killers will go unnoticed.

By shooting down this book on the sole basis that is offers an uncomfortable truth, the environmentalists have in reality become their own worst enemy.

In regards to the book - read it to get a piercing view of the "environmental problems" that you most likely will not get from regular mainstream media. Highly recommended.

Great Retort
This book provides information and facts that fill in gaping holes in the Carbon Dioxide = Global Warming arguments. It truly debunks the notion that the KYOTO TREATY would be good for the world, and in fact provides irrefutable evidence to the contrary.
This is a must read to those who wish to read both sides of the argument.

CHEERS!

Book Report Due Monday
I'm continually amazed by the criticisms I find of books here at Amazon from people who have clearly not read them. This feature is of absolutely no use to me. Amazon would do better to post links to articles with critiques (good and bad) by people in the media of whom we can at least have a reasonable expectation of having actually taken the time to read the book upon which they are commenting.