In this well-informed and hard-hitting response to the scaremongering of the climate alarmists, Nigel Lawson, former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Energy, argues that it is time for us to take a cool look at global warming. Lawson carefully and succinctly examines all aspects of the global warming issue: the science, the economics, the politics, and the ethics. He concludes that, contrary to the deeply-flawed Stern Review, 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 ot 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.All this is argued with logic, commmon sense, and even wit, and thoroughly sourced and referenced. The book concludes by outlining the form a rational response to global warming should take, and explains why the mistaken conventional wisdom has become the quasi-religion it is today, and the dangers that this presents. Lord Lawson has written a long overdue and much needed corrective to the barrage of spin and hype to which the politicians and media have been subjecting the public on this important issue, which affects us all.
An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming
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'Only one senior political figure in Britain has dared stand apart from [the] stifling orthodoxy: Nigel Lawson' --The Telegraph
'On many points the sceptics happen to be correct. Nigel Lawson's short splendid book ... can leave no fair-minded reader in doubt on that score ... Elegantly written, thorough, entertaining and, above all, convincing' --The Financial Times
'Tightly argued ... Bombarded with the zealous certainties of those deaf to reasoned argument on the most important of issues, it is intensely refreshing to find in Nigel Lawson someome who, without claiming to have all the answers, is at least brave enough to ask eminently sensible questions' --The Spectator
'On many points the sceptics happen to be correct. Nigel Lawson's short splendid book ... can leave no fair-minded reader in doubt on that score ... Elegantly written, thorough, entertaining and, above all, convincing' --The Financial Times
'Tightly argued ... Bombarded with the zealous certainties of those deaf to reasoned argument on the most important of issues, it is intensely refreshing to find in Nigel Lawson someome who, without claiming to have all the answers, is at least brave enough to ask eminently sensible questions' --The Spectator
About the Author
Nigel Lawson, Lord Lawson of Blaby, after a number of years in journalism, including as Editor of "The Spectator" from 1966 to 1970, became a Conservative MP in 1974. He served in the Thatcher administration between 1979 and 1989 as Financial Secreatry to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Energy, and, from 1983, Chancellor of the Exchequer. He entered the House of Lords in 1992, and is a member of the Lords' Select Committee on Economic Affairs, which is 2005 produced a substantial report on 'The Economics of Climate Chante'. He is past President of the British Institute of Energy Economics. He lives in London and France.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By tree
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Though no fan of Nigel Lawson's politics. I found this to be informative and refreshing. a good deal of common sense and realism. and although the first part of the book calls into question the science behind global warming theory most of the book's focus is on how to approach it's potential effects focusing on real world reasons for this. a must read for anyone interested in the global warming/climate change issues.
65 of 85 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great common sense critic of Global Warming, and a smart discussion on the most cost-effective way to address the consequences
25 Jan 2009
By Emc2
Format:Hardcover
This is a short and well-written book, provocative and full of smart and no nonsense arguments. Lawson provides end notes for each chapter and all bibliographical sources are properly referenced. The book's aim is to examine each of the dimensions of the consensus view of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW), including the science, the economics, the politics, and the ethical aspects. He is concerned with the uncertainties of long-term forecasting and the lack of a real cost-effectiveness analysis in the policies recommended and advocated by the majority view on climate change, particularly by the radical change in lifestyle that will have to take place in the developed countries, and the unnecessary burden that will be put on the poor in the developing world. Lawson questions the fundamentals of AGW orthodoxy just armed with common sense, his political experience, and some very clever back-of-the-envelope calculations.
Lawson opens the book arguing that although he agrees that there is a real warming trend, he is skeptical of the validity of predictions made with global climate simulation models, and more importantly, he questions if indeed the sole cause of this warming is man-made greenhouses and how big the contribution of CO2 is. Lawson also raises several issues regarding the IPCC process, its findings and policy recommendations, and throughout the book he strongly criticizes the The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review, which he considers "at the extreme end of the alarmist camp".
He might not be right in all the issues, but certainly he will at least let you wonder about some of them.... Read more ›
Lawson opens the book arguing that although he agrees that there is a real warming trend, he is skeptical of the validity of predictions made with global climate simulation models, and more importantly, he questions if indeed the sole cause of this warming is man-made greenhouses and how big the contribution of CO2 is. Lawson also raises several issues regarding the IPCC process, its findings and policy recommendations, and throughout the book he strongly criticizes the The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review, which he considers "at the extreme end of the alarmist camp".
He might not be right in all the issues, but certainly he will at least let you wonder about some of them.... Read more ›
69 of 92 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a wonderful book. As the title suggests, it is cool, reasonable, and patient, looking carefully at all the evidence and coming to conclusions which it is hard to disagree with.
Like other reviewers, I find it hard to take excerpts from the book because I would have to quote the whole thing! However, perhaps I may try to help anyone who is wondering whether to read it. One way to look at the global warming/climate change debate is to ask oneself three questions.
First, is the world getting warmer?
Second, is human activity, and specifically CO2, a major cause?
And third, does it matter? Will there be harmful consequences? And if so, what should we do about them?
Much of the angry debate between believers and sceptics rages round the first two points. Lawson surveys the evidence on both, and comes to a conclusion. But what makes this book so powerful is its focus on the third question: whether a warmer world is one that will harm people, animals, plants, and our descendants. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) argues that it will. Lawson disagrees. He takes us through the IPCC scenarios, and their range of predictions relating to five potential impacts of a warmer world: on water, ecosystems, food, coasts, and health. In each case he demonstrates, with evidence, that a warmer world will either be neutral or even beneficial. What makes this evidence particularly persuasive is that much of it is drawn from the IPCC's own 4th report (2007)!.
It would be wrong to think of this book as complacent, a kind of 'I'm all right, Jack, pull up the ladder'.... Read more ›
Like other reviewers, I find it hard to take excerpts from the book because I would have to quote the whole thing! However, perhaps I may try to help anyone who is wondering whether to read it. One way to look at the global warming/climate change debate is to ask oneself three questions.
First, is the world getting warmer?
Second, is human activity, and specifically CO2, a major cause?
And third, does it matter? Will there be harmful consequences? And if so, what should we do about them?
Much of the angry debate between believers and sceptics rages round the first two points. Lawson surveys the evidence on both, and comes to a conclusion. But what makes this book so powerful is its focus on the third question: whether a warmer world is one that will harm people, animals, plants, and our descendants. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) argues that it will. Lawson disagrees. He takes us through the IPCC scenarios, and their range of predictions relating to five potential impacts of a warmer world: on water, ecosystems, food, coasts, and health. In each case he demonstrates, with evidence, that a warmer world will either be neutral or even beneficial. What makes this evidence particularly persuasive is that much of it is drawn from the IPCC's own 4th report (2007)!.
It would be wrong to think of this book as complacent, a kind of 'I'm all right, Jack, pull up the ladder'.... Read more ›
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Lawson readily acknowledges that he is not a scientist in this book which is an extension of a think-tank lecture that he gave. So his method is to attack the credibility of science while promoting that of economics. He is particularly harsh in his criticism of peer review and its protection of the conventional wisdom, but sometimes that view is right. Peer review is terrible and the politics of science are appalling. Many scientists, including those climate scientists who refused to make their data public should be dismissed from their positions for misconduct as they are not good scientists behaving either ethically or scientifically.
However he needs a better argument than peer review is bad to dismiss the evidence. His economic arguments are powerful and well argued until you think about growth. Is unlimited growth possible? Do we have unlimited resources? Does growth depend on the use of more "free" natural resources? Is there a future cost of these resources that we should be paying for now? For other views on this there is the current debate on the price of Helium as an example of a quantified very finite resource. Also the books The Meaning of the 21st Century by James Martin, and The Second Law by Peter Atkins show why the growth projections he makes are probably unsustainable and as wrong as those of the IPCC and the Stern report.
His main point is that we just don't know and in that he is right. But he doesn't know any better than anyone else and his economic arguments are equally flawed. He is right that human adaptation will ameliorate many of the effects, but he is overly optimistic that this can be done by the free-market. The free-market leads us to the problem of the Tragedy of the Commons as we have seen in fishing policy on the Canadian grand banks.... Read more ›
However he needs a better argument than peer review is bad to dismiss the evidence. His economic arguments are powerful and well argued until you think about growth. Is unlimited growth possible? Do we have unlimited resources? Does growth depend on the use of more "free" natural resources? Is there a future cost of these resources that we should be paying for now? For other views on this there is the current debate on the price of Helium as an example of a quantified very finite resource. Also the books The Meaning of the 21st Century by James Martin, and The Second Law by Peter Atkins show why the growth projections he makes are probably unsustainable and as wrong as those of the IPCC and the Stern report.
His main point is that we just don't know and in that he is right. But he doesn't know any better than anyone else and his economic arguments are equally flawed. He is right that human adaptation will ameliorate many of the effects, but he is overly optimistic that this can be done by the free-market. The free-market leads us to the problem of the Tragedy of the Commons as we have seen in fishing policy on the Canadian grand banks.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
cool logic
I certainly enjoyed this book because of its academic format and the hard logic of a successful politician. Read more
Published 5 months ago by T. J. Shaw
1.0 out of 5 stars
Vested interest glosses the (inconvenient) truth to us all
Would you accept the judgements of a book on economics written by an oceanographer; or a book about the fiscal inter-relationships of a mature economy written by a climatologist? Read more
Published 5 months ago by D. C. Gowans
4.0 out of 5 stars
An accurate title
Being of the view that the science is not necessarily "settled" as we are repeatedly assured, I found this book to be a readable and logical summation of (a) the reasons... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Robert Geoffrey Scott
5.0 out of 5 stars
Other perspective
The book has been written from other perspective than majority books about this major global issue.
Although author (ex-secretary in British Conservative Government) is aware... Read more
Although author (ex-secretary in British Conservative Government) is aware... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Djordje Samardzija
3.0 out of 5 stars
frolly
The title suggests what this book is about. It would have been better to hit AGW harder and to expose its true nature, that is that it is a politically-led scientifically unproven... Read more
Published 17 months ago by frolly
5.0 out of 5 stars
Honest to Reality
Nigel Lawson boldly cuts through the hype; cuts through the lies; kicks out the propaganda; de-mythologises the carbon dioxide "clouds in the sky", and warns the wise that the... Read more
Published 17 months ago by GeorgeD
1.0 out of 5 stars
Lawson's unreasonable appeal is not cool
The first thing to note is the list those who helped in the reviewing early drafts of the text: This includes 4 prominent authors associated with the Institute of Economic Affairs... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Martin Lack
4.0 out of 5 stars
Does what it says in the title
A brief look at the falsehoods generated by the global warming industry and the political fall-out, this is well written and based upon documented evidence. Read more
Published on 18 Jan 2011 by D. Rice
1.0 out of 5 stars
Misleading and Ignorant
Typical. A non-scientist writes a sceptical book on climate change and his views are considered more valid than the views of the scientists that have spent a lifetime studying the... Read more
Published on 18 Dec 2010 by Colin Martin
2.0 out of 5 stars
Shoddy formatting
Disappointed by the poor formatting seen even in the sample of the Kindle eBook. The iPad version seems a bit better but still not good generally.
Published on 31 Oct 2010 by Rahul Kamath
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