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The Skeptical Environmentalist | 
 enlarge | Author: Bjørn Lomborg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Category: Book
List Price: £19.99
Buy New: £9.94
You Save: £10.05 (50%)
New (43) Used (24) from £9.94
Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 90758
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 540
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 10.2 x 6.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0521010683
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.7
EAN: 9780521010689
ASIN: 0521010683
Publication Date: September 1, 2001
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Fast shipping! Ships from the United States
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Amazon.co.uk Review
According to The Skeptical Environmentalist the hole in the Ozone Layer is healing. The Amazon has shrunk by only 14 per cent since the arrival of Man. Only 0.7 per cent of species will be driven to extinction over the next 50 years. Even the poorest humans are getting richer by the year. Things are not good enough; but they are far, far better than we have been taught to believe. Lomborg, a professor of statistics and a former Greenpeace member, reveals the complexity, confusion, and (rarely) misuse of data behind the current Litany of approaching environmental Armageddon. But this is not a comforting or reassuring read. Nor is it a bible for lackeys and do-nothings. Lomborg uses the same figures everyone else uses, from national governments to the Kyoto summit to Greenpeace. Rarely have the raw data been discussed in such detail: their history, how they are calculated, their strengths, and their weaknesses. Lomborg argues persuasively that our sense of approaching human and environmental disaster is an artefact of the valid work of modern scientific, environmental and media institutions. There is, he asserts, no one to blame for our growing sense of despair, but everything to learn. We must learn what real risks are, and what we can do about them. (Kyoto? A very bad idea...) We must prioritise. (30p on the organic basil? Or 30p to buy a child clean water in Sierra Leone?) There is, after all, room for manoeuvre; panic achieves nothing. This is our generation's Silent Spring: a book to rewrite the environmental agenda, and a must-buy for any parent who wonders what kind of world we are leaving for our children.--Simon Ings
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| Customer Reviews: Read 53 more reviews...
 A truly excellent book July 26, 2008
Benedictus (London, UK)
This is one of those books which change the course of things.
It is hugely impressive not only because of the absolutely massive amount of research involved, but because the entire work comes from someone who had, initially, entirely opposite convictions to those reflected in the book and had the intellectual honesty to understand that he was wrong, accept it and spread the word.
More notable is the book also for the unbelievable smearing campaign and the attempt at character assassination of which the author has been made object from his former companions, a truly sobering experience about the ways of "idealists","world savers" and apostles of "tolerance".
And mind, this is not someone just pretending to have been converted to sell a bit more; the author was very active in his academic milieu and certainly not the conservative type (openly and vocally leftist, openly and vocally homosexual). This gives the claims in the books, apart from the huge and ruthlessly accurate research - though the occasional mistake may have slipped here and there - the more credibility.
The environmental hype is now slowly ebbing down; common sense starts to prevail; the mayor of London with his ecoterrorist agenda (actually populism and class warfare with another name, as it is often the case) lost his job and all other british politicians listened to the message; in general, politicians have become more and more timid in trying to "look good" by imposing new taxes "to save the planet". This book shares a part of the merit.
Buy it and will you never regret it.
 Human Life at Any Price? May 23, 2008
Cardano (UK)
The whole thesis of this book is predicated on the moral superiority of the preservation and extension of human life for the maximum number of people. As such it essentially adopts a moral standpoint that values human life, well-being and happiness above all other forms of life and environment on the planet. Human life at any price, it seems.
Will make you think twice next time you hear a stat on the environment February 28, 2008
L. M. STOCKLEY (Stoke-on-Trent, England)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Having always been in the technocentric camp and always been skeptical of environmental issues such as climate change and pollution, I read this book after my environmental issues lecturer put me in touch with it. I have to say that I was amazed with some of the 'propaganda' that environmental groups such as the WWF and green peace were putting out. An excellent read for those who are sick of the doom and gloom merchants we are now regularly seeing on the television on the subject of climate change. Although this is book is quite advanced particularly in the statistics department, (MR. Lomborg is an economist by trade), It is essential reading for those wishing to throw come back stats into the faces of the doom mongerers
Scare tactics exposed! December 5, 2007
P. N. Bertenshaw (UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought this book several years ago after reading a review in a reputable newspaper. What really interested me was a report on the facts behind soil erosion, namely that the information was based on data from a very small scale experiment on sloping farm land in Belgium and simply extrapolated to cover all soils around the world! I couldn't believe that supposedly reputable people and organisations, would go to such obscene lengths to scare people into contributing to their research projects and funding. How wrong I was!
I enjoyed the book immensely and shook my head in disbelief on discovering how selective the environmentalist scaremongers were regarding data selection and how specifically it was presented so as to allow the reader to draw the obvious conclusion, ie- The one the scaremonger wanted them to draw.
The devil is in the detail and when he examined the facts and data behind the scary low sperm count headlines, the flawed nature of the data analysis and presentation soon became clear.
Bjorn Lomborg succeeded in exposing the scare stories for what they really were, just that. Unfortunately, he seems to be a lone voice and like a radio in a boiler factory, is in danger of being drowned out by the noise.
The
numbers and facts October 28, 2007
Bruce (no fixed abode)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great read and a well researched book. Destined to be the bible on global issues.
There is so much presented. From population, wealth and health to climate and the environment. Not sure I could take anyone seriously unless they have read this book cover to references and notes!
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