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Amazon.com Review Amazon.com Guest Reviewer: Michael Crichton In his many science-themed bestsellers--including The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Prey, and most recently, Next--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 State of Fear, he turns his pen toward the often controversial BjArn Lomborg and his latest book, Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming.
BjArn 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, The Skeptical Environmentalist, established the importance of a fact-based approach. With later books, Global Crises, Global Solutions and How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place, this mild-mannered Danish statistician has steadily gained new converts. Not surprisingly, Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming will further enhance Lomborgs 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. 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." 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. In the end, Lomborgs 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 books greatest value. Lomborg and Cool It are our best guides to our shared environmental future. --Michael Crichton (photo credit: Jonathan Exley)
Product Description A startling book that reshapes the debate about global warming and offers a moderate approach to meeting its challenges.
Bjorn Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions now being considered—the Kyoto Protocol, for example—have a staggering potential cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, but, ultimately, will have little impact on the world's temperature. He suggests that rather than institutionalizing these programs to “cool” the earth's temperature 100 years from now, we should focus our resources on some of the world's most pressing immediate concerns, such as: fighting malaria and HIV/AIDS, and maintaining a safe, fresh water supply. And he considers why and how this debate has developed an atmosphere in which dissenters are immediately demonized.
Lomborg Avoids the Hype and Returns Rationality to Global-warming DialogueJanuary 6, 2009 This book is a great resource for those who wish to have a broad understanding of the economic realities facing the world due to global-warming.
In today's world, people are often grouped into two camps: those who believe global warming is a fantasy and those who believe it is the most important issue in history. Lomborg is in neither camp, and he instead categorizes global warming as one issue among many that our society will address in the next century. Given that it is not the only issue we are facing, Lomborg advises we consider the costs and benefits of each of these issues in order to make the best decision possible to positively affect the most people. Such a rational, common-sense approach is a welcome change to the high-pitched rhetoric that we are used to hearing. Thank you Bjorn Lomborg!
Ideas, not LiteratureJanuary 4, 2009 However one feels, whatever one thinks, whatever one thinks one knows about global warming, one should read this book of ideas. Lundstrom's central idea is that it will be many times more efficient to address the effects of global warming than to resist it. Whether Lundstrom convinces you or not, you will not regret having given him the chance to make his point.
I think that his ideas are very persuasive but even if they were not, I think that they would be predictive; they have economics on their side. We tend to do the efficient thing and it is usually more efficient to treat local symptoms than global causes.
For example, he responds to Al Gore's (An Inconvenient Truth) prediction of a huge increase in deaths from malaria by pointing out that malaria deaths correlate much more closely with poverty than with climate. Were it not so, he argues, malaria would still be the scourge in the American south that it was a century ago. Simple screens or insecticides, let alone air conditioning, could all but eliminate malaria, now or in a warmer future. Better and cheaper to enrich the third world than to (marginally) resist global warming.
While Lundstrom accepts the premise of global warming, he does take issue with some of the predictions about its effect. In any case, he argues that some of the effects are benign and some over-stated.
While the ideas in the book dwarf issues of style or readability, it is certainly well-crafted. It is a good read.
While I bought the book for myself in electronic form, I have given paper copies to people that I consider influential. I commend it to all thoughtful people.
Cool ItDecember 12, 2008 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Cool It" is an oasis in a desert of hysterical environmental writing that has gulled the media. Although persuaded that Man contributes to global warming (which Loborg recognizes as occurring), Lomborg's analysis of the impact of globabl wartming and viable responses to it is a model of thoughtful insight. He factually presents the pros and cons of global warming and lays out practical responses. His realistic approach is now confirmed by those many countries which, blindly supporting the Kyoto Accords, have found, as Lonborg posited, that it is an unaffordable response to a discernible but managable problem.
A Common Sense Approach to Global WarmingDecember 7, 2008 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Finally, a book comes out that puts aside the hysteria which typically accompanies the discussion regarding global warming, and focuses on practical solutions to solving the problem. Lomborg first skillfully puts to rest much of the global warming propaganda, and then takes a "big picture" approach to suggest other issues that should be addressed before global warming in order to improve living conditions for all mankind. That's not to say that Lomborg doesn't offer solutions for global warming. However, his resolutions are more realistic than the "immediately ban everything that causes a polutant" mentality of many global warming adherents. As a result of the level-headed approach that Lomborg espouses, Cool It is valuable reading for anyone on either side of the global warming issue.
"Skeptical" is a good title wordOctober 28, 2008 2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Bjorn Lomborg is an intelligent man. He does get a lot of things right. But be wary of his fact-twisting and deception with numbers. Many of the quotes used are taken completely out of context. For more information, check out this link: http://www.lomborg-errors.dk/coolit.htm
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BjArn 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, The Skeptical Environmentalist, established the importance of a fact-based approach. With later books, Global Crises, Global Solutions and How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place, this mild-mannered Danish statistician has steadily gained new converts. Not surprisingly, Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming will further enhance Lomborgs 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. 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." 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. In the end, Lomborgs 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 books greatest value. Lomborg and Cool It are our best guides to our shared environmental future. --Michael Crichton (photo credit: Jonathan Exley) 
