An Appeal to Reason: a Cool Look at Global Warming Free

FREE AN APPEAL TO REASON: A COOL LOOK AT GLOBAL WARMING PDF

Climate change is a highly complex global problem, and one plagued by major uncertainties. Despite much progress in recent years, our knowledge about the physical processes underlying global warming is still far from complete. And its possible economic impact depends on a huge number of unpredictable variables, An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming as how well society might adapt to change, and at what cost. So it is important to keep testing the consensus view that has emerged in the past few years, which is, to quote from an IMF report this month, that "climate change is a potentially catastrophic global externality and one of the world's greatest collective action problems. To this extent, Nigel Lawson's short book is to be welcomed. Along with the polemics, he makes some sensible points. For example, he is right to raise the alarm about the impact of biofuels on food prices, and about the huge costs and inefficiencies of imposing arbitrary targets for the production of renewable energy. He is right to warn about the dangers of trade protectionism that could result from imposing trade barriers against countries that do not cut their greenhouse gas emissions. And he is right to scoff at those who claim that unusual weather conditions in recent years represent clear evidence that disaster is on the way. But when it comes to the big picture, he is very likely to be wrong. Lawson's view is that what he calls the new religion of global warming contains a grain of truth and a mountain of very damaging nonsense. He believes that "We appear to have entered a new age of unreason, which threatens to be as economically harmful as it is profoundly disquieting. Never one to suffer from an excess of humility, he is happy to attack the scientific might of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming Change, a "global quasi-monopoly" whose judgment and integrity he finds open to question. But he reserves his special contempt for the Stern review, which at various points in the book he describes as alarmist, cockeyed, scaremongering, politically inspired and lamentable. This abuse has a purpose. Lord Stern's central message is that provided the world acts quickly enough to curb greenhouse gas emissions, we won't have to make the painful choice between averting climate change on the one hand, and economic development on the other. The longer we delay, the more costly the necessary actions. Lawson has to shoot this down in order to sustain his own argument, which is that given all the uncertainties and the difficulties in securing a sharp cut in emissions, it makes much more sense to go with the flow and adapt to climate conditions if and when they change. His message is based on two dangerous assumptions. One is that the risks of rapidly accelerating greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere are not as great as An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming consensus would suggest. The other is that the costs and difficulties of curbing these emissions are too great to contemplate. Repeated throughout the book is the view that, even on the most pessimistic calculation, the people of the developing world a hundred years hence will not be that much worse off than otherwise would have been the case - and they will still be a lot better An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming than they are today. It's true that the impact of major economic shocks can be made to seem trivial if they are spread over a wide enough geography and a long enough time horizon. This is the kind of analysis you might have deployed in to tell the people of western Europe not to get too fussed about the threat of imminent war. And it leads to all kinds of airy generalisations. For example, Lawson states that if global warming results in water shortages, the obvious remedy is sensible conservation measures, including in particular the pricing of water. An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming this to the almost one billion people in Africa and Asia who, according to the IMF, face water shortages by as a result of climate change. When it comes to the potential costs of mitigation, Lawson resorts to the kind of hyperbole that would make the most fanatical environmentalist blush. An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming one point, he suggests that it would mean unwinding the industrial revolution and returning to a pastoral society - and that would only be the start. Of course Stern's conclusions are open to challenge. In particular, respectable economists have argued that his method of calculation understates the economic costs and overstates the benefits of early action to avert global warming. But it is ridiculous to suggest, as Lawson does, that the Stern review has played the same role as Tony Blair's notorious "dodgy dossier". Where does all this leave those of us who are not scientists, economists, or polemicists? Last year, the CBI brought together a group of business leaders who were none of the above. They concluded that climate change represented a significant risk to society and the economy, and that actions to mitigate the risk were therefore necessary. These include the creation of a meaningful price for carbon, to spur the necessary cuts in emissions; investment in new technologies; spending on the physical infrastructure that will be necessary to protect against weather changes that are already inevitable; regulatory standards to stimulate new behaviour; and serious efforts to build global agreements for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Most people don't expect their house to burn down. But they take out fire insurance, provided it is available at a sensible price, to protect themselves against the possibility. In the light of our current knowledge about global warming, that amounts to a compelling case for action. Topics Books. Climate change Politics books reviews. Reuse this content. Most popular. AN Appeal to Reason | , | VitalSource

I should have realised that any book entitled, 'An Appeal to Reason', was going to be the opposite but, I was recommended to read what I was informed was the most cogent denial of global warming. Nigel Lawson's Appeal to Reason is the best short book on the whole range of issues in the global warming debate. He discusses the science, the models, the possible impacts and their costs, and the policies proposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in clear, concise, measured prose. Nigel Lawson. In the s we were warned that the population explosionwould lead to mass global starvation. In the s we were warned that the planet was running out of natural resources and that world economic growth would grind to a halt within our lifetimes. When the planet's temperature, An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming had been gently rising for some years, appeared to be falling again, scientists warned us that we were facing the disaster of a new ice age. In the past year, sensational warnings about climate change have dominated the headlines as we are told that global warming will have disastrous consequences in the very near future unless we take drastic measures now. In this cautious and reasoned treatise on an issue that effects each and every one of us, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, argues that it is time to take a cooler look at global warming. Lord Lawson looks at the facts behind the headlines and An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming that science is only part of the story. For governments to make informed decisions about the path ahead they must listen to economists as well as scientists, utilising economic forecasting to assess the likely evolution of the world economy, and even more urgently, economic analysis: what is the most cost-effective way of tackling this issue? We also need an understanding of exactly what measures are politically realistic on a global scale. At a time when politicians and the media are stirring up public and political hysteria on the subject of climate change, Lord Lawson has written a timely disquisition An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming us to take into account all the facts in order to deal with the threat of global warming. The Science and the History. An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming - Nigel Lawson - Google книги

In this well-informed and hard-hitting response to the scaremongering of the climate alarmists, Nigel Lawson, former Secretary of State for Energy under Margaret Thatcher, argues that it is time for us to take a cool look at global warming. Lawson carefully and An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming examines all aspects of the global warming issue. Lawson carefully and succinctly examines all aspects of the global warming issue: the science, the economics, the politics, and the ethics. He concludes that the conventional wisdom on the subject is suspect on a number of grounds, that global warming is not the devastating threat to the planet it is widely alleged to be, and that the remedy that is currently being proposed, which is in any event politically unattainable, would be worse that the threat it is supposed to avert. Argued with logic, common sense, and even wit, and thoroughly sourced and referenced, Lawson has written a long overdue corrective to the barrage of spin and hype to which the politicians and media have been subjecting the public on this important issue. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Lawson carefully and succinctly examines all aspects of the global warming issue "Clear, analytical and compelling. Get A Copy. Hardcoverpages. Published May 29th by Harry N. Abrams first published April 10th More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about An Appeal to Reasonplease sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Nigel Lawson is a notorious An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming change denier and I was interested to see close-up how people like him dissemble and distort the issue of climate change in order to advance whatever masturbatory ideological hobby-horse they happen to be riding. Even so I was genuinely shocked at how offensive this book is, on every level, across every one of its rancid pages. Everybody associated with it, not least the publisher, should be deeply ashamed of themselves. Lawson opens the book with a nod to his publisher, whining about how hard it was to get it published. The defining theme of this book is hypocrisy, in evidence on pretty much every page. But perhaps the most outrageously hypocritical moment comes when he highlights the abundance of coal in the UK as a cheap energy source, despite having been a leading member of a government that jackboot-stamped the last nail into the coffin of the UK coal industry. The natural environment is a public good that will not be protected by a market that emphasises short-term returns. Lawson is a parody of a decaying Thatcher-era toff with no vested interest in the future, only in spinning his obsolescence as iconoclasm. However, the very fact that this book made it into print probably gives it significance, destined to be quoted and recycled as a source by other deniers, and I find that hugely depressing. Nov 05, Nick rated it it was ok Shelves: economics-environment. I had mixed feelings about this book. It is good to get an understanding of the kind of arguments proposed by the more skeptical An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming of the political establishment and, for that An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming alone, it makes an interesting read. Some of the points Lawson makes are good - about adaptation being a better option in some respects than mitigation, or also the political confusion and duplicity in this area - eg, setting carbon reduction limits whilst simultaneously giving subsidies to coal. Or equally, how I had mixed feelings about this book. Or equally, how stupid it is for a country to claim having reduced their carbon emissions by outsourcing all their heavy industry to China. Given that this is a global problem this clearly achieves nothing other than the illusion of action. But I also feel that he is inconsistent in many areas. He speaks near the beginning of the book about an average temperature rise being meaningless as it says nothing about local variation which may be much higher, like at the poles - then goes on to argue the triviality of an average long term rise later in the book. Even if global warming is not as serious as some might think, there are other reasons why moving away from fossil fuels are a necessity - i. It seems to me to be a basically undeniably sensible thing to be developing clean energy for these reasons, perhaps more pressingly even than climate change. There's one last point that really struck me reading An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming book and I'm not sure whether I should thank Lawson for his frankness or feel slightly nauseous. When talking about how to maximize tax revenue he says: "I and my predecessors and successors as Chancellor of the Exchequer in this country and many of our counterparts elsewhere in Europe have used high sounding health arguments to justify raising substantial revenues from tobacco taxation, always taking care not to pitch the duty so high that too many people gave up smoking, causing the tax yield actually to diminish. In the same way, if people like to feel that they are saving the planet by paying a carbon tax, they should not be deprived of the opportunity to do so. Lawson is clearly not devoid of ethics in many of his arguments, but An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming still find the above disturbing. It also raises the question as to whether the UK government is not seriously seeking alternatives to fossil fuel as long as there are healthy tax revenues from motorists? Aug 01, Libby rated it did not like it Shelves: owned. I had to stop reading this. It's not Lawson's climate denial that got to me - although that was grating, I appreciate that science shouldn't be a religion and that the whole scientific method is based on testing, retesting, retesting, etc. Some data 10 years ago shows an uncertainty? Great, question it and test again. Some of the predictions Lawson shouts as bogus have actually come true, so I'd love to see his excuses for it now. He shrugged off the potential plight that climate change can bring to An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming global south though he does address it in the conclusion, I'll get to thisand I had to give up when he mentions the heat wave in Europe. In one paragraph, he An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming that the death toll was near 20, He then blames the French for going on holiday and leaving elderly relatives on their own, and An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming he says he was in southern France in August and it wasn't that bad. Fuck off, Nigel Lawson. How can anyone take him seriously? And really what got to me was the fact that, really, he has no opinion about climate change, but more of an opinion on government reactions. First there's no such thing as global warming because it actually cooled; then okay, maybe there is global warming, but only mild so NBD; An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming okay, even if it IS warming, mitigation isn't the answer, it's adaptation, and it won't be so bad, not really More benefits than costs, so it's FINE if islanders' water supplies are contaminated by rising seawater or there's erratic, intense droughts in east Africa. Make up your mind, champ. The fact is, he's totally fine with adaptation because he figures humans have been adapting since we started out as sapiens. But even as he's making some commentary on adapting, he makes a totally insensitive remark about Tuvalu islanders who were moving from the island to avoid rising waters - they're 'economic migrants' don't you know? And therefore their reasons for moving are less valid. But what was that about adapting? Right, because humans didn't for millennia migrate to adapt. SOME adaptation is fine, as long as it doesn't make us look at our own policies and laws. After the European heat wave comment, I moved on to the conclusion. Only then did I have some semblance of agreement with Lawson. He did believe that if climate change will affect the world's poorest it willthen there should be a robust aid budget to help those people, since you know, it wasn't their fault. Naturally he slips in what exactly he thinks 'good aid' looks like, but he's a Thatcherite capitalist and it's just amazing that we would agree on somethingso I won't dissect that further. I do remember there may have been one other point I appreciated, but frankly the whole thing was such rubbish I've forgotten the point two days after I threw the book across the room in frustration. To all climate campaigners: worth a read if you want to know your enemies, but drink with whisky in hand to settle your unnerving and maybe mask the acrid taste it leaves in your mouth. Jan 30, Greyweather rated it it was amazing. Lawson takes an interesting approach to the global warming debate. He begins where most skeptics end, with the science. In addition the the usual assortment of scientific sources generally labels as skeptics, Lawson uses the science at the heart of the global warming camp, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change IPCCas the basis for his arguments. It is starting with the second chapter that Lawson takes on his most unique approach. In essence he says at this point, since the global Mr. In essence he says at this point, since the global warming community only gives credence to the reports of the IPCC, the rest of the book will be based on the premise that the IPCC is absolutely correct. He then points out, very carefully and point by point with references to IPCC reports and data from climatologists: -how the extreme, near- apocalyptic, alarmist predictions by the likes of Al Gore have no basis in climatologist data or the An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming reports, -why the current political approaches to CO2 reduction have consistently failed and will continue to fail in the face of the needs of the developing world, -why regional mostly European approaches to CO2 reduction are both impractical on a local economic scale and detrimental on a global, environmental scale, -and how it is more sensible in practical, ethical, and economic terms to adapt to the moderate rise in global temperatures predicted by the IPCC [the most extreme projection of the IPCC is that, on average, in years the Earth will be about 4 degrees centigrade 7. What a horrible piece of political propaganda and against Europe too!!! This book is based on wrongly interpreted facts, displaced scientific therms, confused arguments. For instance it mentions first that there is no global warming, second that it exists but we are able to adapt and finally that it will be beneficial for Europe because less people will die of hypothermia! It also says that a global agreement on CO2 emissions is impossible, so we should just give up on that.