Chasing Rainbows looks at what the commonly held beliefs are about what we should do to avoid, curtail or adapt to global warming and compares them to what we should actually be doing. This is not an argument about the science: Worstall leaves that entirely to others to debate. Rather, what guides and indications can we get from the economics already embedded in such things as the IPCC reports and the Stern Review. The answers will shock some: globalisation is part of the cure for climate change. Recycling of some things certainly saves resources but of domestic waste actually wastes them. Creating green jobs is not a benefit but a cost of our actions. Drawing on the official reports that most agree is the scientific consensus and adding insights from economic theory, Worstall is able to show that much of what we're told we should do to save the planet is in fact wrong, diametrically opposed in many cases to what we should really be doing. It's not only desirable to have a cleaner, greener, richer world, it's also possible, and Worstall lays out what we need to do to achieve this. The 'Bishop Hill' blog recommended that this book 'should probably be gifted to every teenager as they leave the school system', while 'Stumbling and Mumbling' wrote that '...there are some brilliant flourishes. His idiot cousin metaphor for comparative advantage verges on the genius.'
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Tim Worstall is one of the few right-wing writers on economics leftish readers can bring themselves to read although we often hate ourselves (and him) for doing it. Although he takes a butcher's cleaver to many sacred cows of green thinking, his work is animated by a true concern about how to solve the great environmental challenges of our age --Nick Cohen, author of 'Waiting for the Etonians'
Fearless, fresh, forensic and funny, Tim Worstall cuts through all the nonsense and brings sparkling and profound economic insights to the environmental debate. Read this book. --Matt Ridley, author of 'The Rational Optimist'
Tim Worstall is asking the right questions, and often producing the right answers. Jaw-droppingly rude he may be, but he's smart, and this book is quite an education. --Tim Harford, author of 'The Undercover Economist'
Fearless, fresh, forensic and funny, Tim Worstall cuts through all the nonsense and brings sparkling and profound economic insights to the environmental debate. Read this book. --Matt Ridley, author of 'The Rational Optimist'
Tim Worstall is asking the right questions, and often producing the right answers. Jaw-droppingly rude he may be, but he's smart, and this book is quite an education. --Tim Harford, author of 'The Undercover Economist'
Fearless, fresh, forensic and funny, Tim Worstall cuts through all the nonsense and brings sparkling and profound economic insights to the environmental debate. Read this book. --Matt Ridley, author of 'The Rational Optimist'
Tim Worstall is asking the right questions, and often producing the right answers. Jaw-droppingly rude he may be, but he's smart, and this book is quite an education. --Tim Harford, author of 'The Undercover Economist'
Fearless, fresh, forensic and funny, Tim Worstall cuts through all the nonsense and brings sparkling and profound economic insights to the environmental debate. Read this book. --Matt Ridley, author of 'The Rational Optimist'
Tim Worstall is asking the right questions, and often producing the right answers. Jaw-droppingly rude he may be, but he's smart, and this book is quite an education. --Tim Harford, author of 'The Undercover Economist'
About the Author
Tim Worstall is both a businessman working in the field of renewable energy and a freelance writer. He has been published in The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, The Register and numerous other online sites. He is a Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 32 people found the following review helpful
By T. C. Daw
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This isn't a "sceptic" book in that it accepts all the "consensus" science and policies of the IPCC and Lord Stern. What it does is show what simple economics tells us we should be doing to implement them. The economics are not controversial either, they are completely mainstream and well accepted.
The conclusions are surprising though. The most vocal of campaigners and policy makers are proposing the wrong solutions. That is why it will bet lumped as a "denier book" and ignored.
But don't ignore it, not only is it important, it is an easy read and an enjoyable one. This isn't some dry dusty tome but a short gallop, whooping and hollering across the landscape pointing out interesting asides and unexpected truths. You don't need to know any economics to appreciate it just an open mind.
The conclusions are surprising though. The most vocal of campaigners and policy makers are proposing the wrong solutions. That is why it will bet lumped as a "denier book" and ignored.
But don't ignore it, not only is it important, it is an easy read and an enjoyable one. This isn't some dry dusty tome but a short gallop, whooping and hollering across the landscape pointing out interesting asides and unexpected truths. You don't need to know any economics to appreciate it just an open mind.
18 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This noisy polemic is by Tim Worstall, member of the Adam Smith Institute, press officer for the UKIP and commodity trader. He's not a climate scientist, so it's safe to ignore him.
Except... he's an economist, and a good one. And here he examines the recommendations of the global warming lobby through the lens of some really basic economic axioms.
Seen through the optic of Smith's needle factory, Bastiat's broken windows and Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage, all (ALL) the prescriptions for reducing global warming are wrong. Farmers' markets, green subsidies, compulsory sterilisation and one world government are "remedies" which will not achieve their aims and will make us much poorer.
This book is likely to be bought and read only by committed deniers, which is a pity. It should (and can - there is no math) be read by anyone without any grounding in economics. I would recommend it to our ruling class. What did we do to deserve such pig ignorant bosses?
Except... he's an economist, and a good one. And here he examines the recommendations of the global warming lobby through the lens of some really basic economic axioms.
Seen through the optic of Smith's needle factory, Bastiat's broken windows and Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage, all (ALL) the prescriptions for reducing global warming are wrong. Farmers' markets, green subsidies, compulsory sterilisation and one world government are "remedies" which will not achieve their aims and will make us much poorer.
This book is likely to be bought and read only by committed deniers, which is a pity. It should (and can - there is no math) be read by anyone without any grounding in economics. I would recommend it to our ruling class. What did we do to deserve such pig ignorant bosses?
7 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By T. J. Jones
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Probably most of us reading this book at this point are familiar with Tim Worstall's blog, and the contents are reassuringly familiar - brusque, sometimes rude, to the point, and fundamentally a clear economic perspective on the environmental movement. Worstall's basic point is that in more cases than not, the stated aims of the environmental movement (i.e. to minimise human impact on the environment), do not translate to supporting policies which will bring about that goal. His point is that other agendas (which he does not get into detail about) seem to be driving the movement. His technique is to do a cost/benefit analysis of any particular policy, e.g. to show that the cost of asking us to sort our own recycling is simply not known, and at some level will outweigh the benefit of this activity. Or that buying locally does not necessarily have a smaller impact on the environment than sourcing a good from somewhere where it can be produced more efficiently (e.g. buying farm product from New Zealand may produce less externalities than buying from the UK, if in the UK farming requires mitigating against the cold winters by keeping livestock in heated sheds). He's probably preaching to the converted, in my case I have my own suspicions that the environmental movement attracts those who would like an economy planned centrally by the government, i.e. the movement has picked up those who would have supported communism in the 1980s.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am a trained nothing, but sceptical of most heavily promoted theories and "sciences". Having read Tim's blog for years, and had some small correspondence with him, I bought this book and read it with ease and enjoyment. I recommend it to anyone except climate religionists. Alan Douglas
42 of 75 people found the following review helpful
By Recharge
Format:Paperback
This is a truly dreadful book. The first problem is that it is written in the style of an unsophisticated sixth former who thinks he has just discovered the ultimate truths of the universe and that everyone else is a complete moron (this appears to be the house style of the Adam Smith Institute by the way). However, leaving stylistic questions aside, there are much more serious problems with the substance of his argument, the most important of which are set out below.
First, Worstall makes great play of the idea that one of the two most important concepts in economics is that "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" (p9). [This is incidentally one of those canards that is usually advanced by overweight right wing commentators who have benefitted from one too many of said free lunches]. What he means by this is that every resource has an opportunity cost. Unfortunately (for him), he then goes on to refute his own argument (p23) by demonstrating conclusively that there is a class of goods (non-rivalrous and non-excludable) which have no opportunity cost regardless of how many people use them (ie. public goods or free lunches). He even gives us an example - Newton's equations of gravity. There are many other examples of such free lunches notwithstanding the efforts of lobbyists to capture this value for their clients through excessive intellectual property protection laws. So, it turns out that his most important premise is undermined by his own argument.
Second, Worstall argues that one of the big problems with environmentalists is that they fail to take account of the (non)fact that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and thereby propose policies which are economically (and ultimately environmentally) damaging.... Read more ›
First, Worstall makes great play of the idea that one of the two most important concepts in economics is that "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" (p9). [This is incidentally one of those canards that is usually advanced by overweight right wing commentators who have benefitted from one too many of said free lunches]. What he means by this is that every resource has an opportunity cost. Unfortunately (for him), he then goes on to refute his own argument (p23) by demonstrating conclusively that there is a class of goods (non-rivalrous and non-excludable) which have no opportunity cost regardless of how many people use them (ie. public goods or free lunches). He even gives us an example - Newton's equations of gravity. There are many other examples of such free lunches notwithstanding the efforts of lobbyists to capture this value for their clients through excessive intellectual property protection laws. So, it turns out that his most important premise is undermined by his own argument.
Second, Worstall argues that one of the big problems with environmentalists is that they fail to take account of the (non)fact that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and thereby propose policies which are economically (and ultimately environmentally) damaging.... Read more ›
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