Recommended: Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming

Bjorg Lomborg’s two previous books, Global Crises, Global Solutions (see book list under 2004) and The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World (see book list under 2001) have made the point that supporters for an issue have a tendency to exaggerate their issue into a crisis in order to draw attention to it and gain support and leverage, but that the public perception built on the exaggerated claims, hyped by the press, frequently lead to bad or ineffective policy. In this book he takes on the “Global Climate Crisis”, arguing that although global warming is certainly real, it is nowhere near the crisis that supporters claim for it, and that a clear-headed look at the data would suggest that there are lots of other issues we could spend money on that would have more drastic and more immediate effects in terms of saving lives and improving the quality of life for people around the world.

It’s not that he thinks global warming isn’t a problem; it’s that he thinks the billions we might spend to make a small dent in the CO2 level in 50 years could make a huge difference to billions of people tomorrow in better health, better nutrition, education, and the like, and that we ought to be more thoughtful in ordering our priorities and not get stampeded by exaggerated claims of crisis. As in his previous books, his arguments are solidly backed by facts from reputable sources, and deserve serious consideration.