Tag Archives: scientists

“Sustainability” Chris Goodall

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Goodall_SustainabilityISBN 978-1-4441-7440-3. The “All That Matters” book on “Sustainability” by Chris Goodall was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2012. This is a small book that fits nicely in your pocket with only 154 pages. The blurb says that “All That Matters” books are written by “the world’s leading experts”. Certainly Chris is that. We are a big fan (we admit it). We will read anything he writes including his excellent blogs. So it is interesting to see how his work has evolved over the years. Those who have followed his work can’t help but notice that THIS book reveals a lot about the current state of Chris’s mind. So, what does he think today about sustainability?

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“Merchants of Doubt” by Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway

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Oreskes_Merchants_of_DoubtISBN 978 14088 2483 2. “Merchants of Doubt – How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming” was written by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway and first published by Bloomsbury in 2010 (this paperback in 2012). If you fast forward to the Conclusion in this book you may be forgiven for thinking you were still reading the last book we reviewed “Debunking Economics” by Steve Keen. For what links the two is how a dogmatic belief in “free market fundamentalism” can cause people to abandon all reason. As if under the influence of some bizarre cult perfectly reasonable people start to deny the very principle of reality: they start fighting scientific rationalism with propaganda.

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Lawrence Solomon “The Deniers – The World-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria, political persecution and fraud (and those who are too fearful to do so)”

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ISBN 978-0-9800763-1-8. “The Deniers – The World-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria, political persecution and fraud (and those who are too fearful to do so)” was written by Lawrence Solomon and published by Richard Vigilante Books in 2008. Any stalwart believer in man-made climate change is going to have to over-come a couple of hurdles before they pick up this book. Firstly, the ludicrous title! Although the book suggests anecdotally that several scientists may have been isolated, for their beliefs, there is not much here that would have you believe in either “hysteria”, “persecution” or “fraud”. Solomon blows it right there on the front cover. Continue reading →

“The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices – Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists” by Michael Brower

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ISBN 0 609 80281 X. Full Title “The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices – Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists”. Written by Michael Brower and Warren Leon (both PhD). Published by Random House in 1999. Well, if you, like us, had never heard of the ‘Union of Concerned Scientists’ then there is a little section at the back to explain – an independent NGO the UCS (in the U.S.) conducts studies and public education in order to influence government policy for a ‘healthier environment’. Whatever that is. The book kicks off with an amazingly dumb anecdote about how a group of keen recyclers drove a car stuffed with newspapers all over someplace in hicksville USA looking for a recycling center. Continue reading →