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Freedom Book of the Month for February, 2003:
Global Warming and Other Eco-MythsEnvironmental issues are front and center worldwide, as claims of global warming, overpopulation, and depletion of the Earth's resources continue to be advanced by some environmentalists. Aided in their efforts by journalists who seem increasingly unable or unwilling to evaluate claims and studies logically and scientifically, it can seem that free-market environmentalism is losing ground. Fortunately, Ronald Bailey has put together a dynamite package in Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths that refutes several "eco-myths", and offers hope for the future.
Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths gets straight to the point. Each chapter is authored by a respected expert, such as Jonathan Adler, Gregory Conko, Rakhi Gupta, and Norman Borlaug. Although varying in style and level of detail, each chapter clearly, systematically demolishes claims of the collectivist-environmentalists, starting with the list of "Eco-Myths Debunked" that opens each chapter. Extensive quotations from environmental leaders of Greenpeace, Sierra Club, and other groups are often sufficient to show the irrationality of their claims and goals (one particularly laughable one is to "ban all chlorine compounds"), but the contributors take it farther. They show how these claims are often parroted year after year, when in fact improvements have been made, making their scare-mongering completely unjustified. Comparisons of pseudoscience alongside rigorous research, done in mostly jargon-free, straightforward language make the book highly readable for a general audience.
Indeed, one of the things I like best about Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths is how chapter contributors include general facts, such as why wheat is the the only grain ideally suited for making leavened products. The inclusion of a section titled "Benchmarks: The Global Trends that are Shaping Our World" is highly informative. Each benchmark is identified, described, and put into context so that its relevance is understood. An accompanying graph shows each benchmark's recent trend. An interested reader can easily keep up with the benchmarks of interest to him or her by monitoring news and other reports. The Benchmarks section alone is worth the price of the book.
Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths isn't likely to make it onto the reading lists of those labeled "ideological environmentalists" by the book's contributors. That label is unfortunate, because it will likely cause some people to avoid the book, and some readers to stop reading. It and the title (again, because it helps close minds) are the only major quibbles I have with this excellent volume.
Clear language, sound science contrasted with junk science and Luddism, and broad coverage of environmental issues combine in Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths to create the definitive refutation of the environmental doomsayers' messages. Apolitical environmentalists (i.e., those who don't accept the underlying socialism of much of the environmental movement) are likely to find it persuasive. For free-market environmentalists, Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths is an invigorating defense of capitalism and reason, and a valuable resource of facts. It ought to be translated into as many languages as possible and distributed worldwide, because Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths has exactly what developing countries, and those who challenge the EU's flawed environmental policies, need.
Order Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths from Laissez Faire Books, $24.95
More book information for February 2003
edited by Sunni Maravillosa
November 2002: The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, by Ludwig von Mises
October 2002: The Haunted Air, by F. Paul Wilson
September 2002: Lead Astray and Out of Bounds, Out of Control by Peter Samuel and James V. DeLong respectively
August 2002: Boston's Gun Bible II by Boston T. Party
July 2002: Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan
June 2002: Net Assets by Carl Bussjaeger
May 2002: The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz
April 2002: Toward Liberty: The Idea that is Changing the World edited by David Boaz
March 2002: Liberty for Women edited by Wendy McElroy
February 2002: The State vs. the People by Aaron Zelman and Claire Wolfe
Freedom Book of the Year, 2001: Hope by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith
January 2002: Death by Gun Control by Aaron Zelman and Richard W. Stevens
December 2001: The American Zone by L. Neil Smith
November 2001: Ayn Rand and Business by Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni
October 2001: Junk Science Judo by Steven J. Milloy
September 2001: Jonathan Gullible by Ken Schoolland
August 2001: Hope by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
July 2001: Dissenting Electorate edited by Wendy McElroy and Carl Watner
June 2001: Tethered Citizens by Sheldon Richman
May 2001: Lever Action by L. Neil Smith
April 2001: The Cato Handbook for Congress from the Cato Institute
March 2001: The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley
February 2001: Crypto by Steven Levy
January 2001: Total Freedom by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Freedom Book of the Year 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
December 2000: The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto
November 2000: Escape from Leviathan by J.C. Lester
October 2000: The Art of Political War by David Horowitz
September 2000: An Enemy of the State by Justin Raimondo
August 2000: The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell
July 2000: A Generation Divided by Rebecca Klatch
June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman
May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben
March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand
February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler
January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood
Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz
November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy
September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe
July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant
May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz
April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille
March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary
February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
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