Global Warming Denial is Alive and Kicking
Every year I look for new books that have been recently published in order to keep as up-to-date as possible. I had been under the impression that the controversy over whether global warming is really happening as a result of human activity was finally dying down, and that even the nay-sayers were beginning to accept the overwhelming science that proves this is the case. I was shocked to see how prevalent and vociferous the global warming deniers still are.Out of 24 books I reviewed that were published in 2009 and relate to climate change and global warming, 9 of them (more than one third) were clearly denying the consensus of scientific opinion. With titles like "Global Warming False Alarm," "Global Warming Science They Don't Want You to Know," "Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed," "Global Warming: Manmade or Man Made-Up?" it is clear that there is a significant emotional charge behind this writing.
So who is publishing this denial literature? Two of the publishers appear to general trade publishers, two are highly conservative publishers, two are religiously oriented, two were self-published, and one was came out of the Cato Institute, self-proclaimed as "libertarian."
Fortunately, there are also many well-researched and thoughtful books that are intended to be more constructive, evaluating the options available for mitigating global warming. I counted 7 in this category, along with 3 more that delve deeply into the science confirming global warming as human-caused. One book, "When the Planet Rages: Natural Disasters, Global Warming and the Future of the Earth," takes a long-range historical perspective.
Another hot topic seems to be the controversy itself, with books like "Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming" and "Lies, Damned Lies, and Science: How to Sort through the Noise around Global Warming..."
And then there are some books that point out how businesses are taking advantage of the frenzy over global warming for economic gain. These include "Global Warming Is Good for Business: How Savvy Entrepreneurs, Large Corporations, and Others are Making Money While Saving the Planet" and "The Plot to Save the Planet: How Visionary Entrepreneurs and Corporate Titans Are Creating Real Solutions to Global Warming."
Climate change and how we should, or should not, deal with it is clearly one of the major issues of the day, and probably of this century. I encourage everyone to become fully informed and make choices from a position of sober analysis rather than from emotional reaction.
