Product Description

This is a dedicated mailing and e-mail campaign to targeted popular science media and organisations. The physical phenomena of climate and weather are amongst the most complex in nature, and science can say very little about what they will do in the future. Yet a large international policy framework has been built around the assumption that we know precisely what is happening and how to control it."Taken by Storm" is a provocative volume that challenges this assumption, carefully explaining the science of climate change and deconstructing the simplistic concept of global warming. It argues that the issue of global warming is leading to an unprecedented schism between science and society, but it also proposes a vital first step that can be taken toward repairing this relationship.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #189682 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 390 pages

About the Author
Christopher Essex is Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Western Ontario. Ross McKitrick is an associate professor of Economics at the University of Guelph, Ontario.

Customer Reviews

evisceration to the sound of light music
This book is aimed at a wide audience and, perhaps conscious that many of them will has a limited grasp of mathematical and statistical concepts , and indeed might flee at the first sign of an equation, it endeavours to lead the reader gently towards the arguments by the use of a jocular and familiar manner. Generally speaking the tactic works. The breezy language does not detract from serious arguments about serious scientific issues.
There are a number of palpable hits on the alarmist school of climate change. The concept of "average global temperature " has been examined and shown to be wanting in other sceptical publications but it is done with some panache and humour here.
The misuse of models for purposes which they cannot fulfil ,prediction, is examined as is the failure of those ,who ought to know better, in not pointing out this misapplication. The fluidity and adjustability of models , which can be their strength in our efforts to understand complex process, is their fatal weakness when proponents try to use them as road maps. This book gets that point across well.

It would be a good read for any politician on the air journey to Copenhagen in December. (I doubt many will be sailing under canvas.) However they would have to keep it under a plain brown cover to avoid discovery by their entourage. Green jobs, particularly green bureaucratic jobs, must be protected!

a sad but true reflection of how blinkered we can be if it suits us
It is a bizarre book that is quite typical of the sceptics that are the authors.

In the first instance it is a re-run (with no substantive changes) to a book first published in 2002. Since that time far more detailed analysis and scientific research has been carried out including, but not limited to, the IPCC (Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change) report that was published in mid-2007 and which caused the sceptical Bush administration to embark on a volte-face. As such, anything based on science in this book (and I haven't found anything) would be out of date.

On the subject of a lack of science, the book seems to be written on the basis of (unqualified) opinions and statistical analysis. On further investigation that is hardly surprising: one of the authors is an economist and the other is a mathematician: neither is a scientist and neither is qualified to opine on the science of global warming. Their attempt to pitch their arguments against the IPCC, a leading independent panel of the world's greatest scientists, is ludicrous.

Finally, in support of my last argument about the lack of science and the lack of qualification of the authors, I give one example. The authors of this book argue that drinkers of carbonated drinks are contributing to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and so activists ought to drink flat drinks. The fact of the matter is that drinks are carbonated by pumping carbon dioxide into them and so when the bubbles release the gas on opening a can/bottle it is the same carbon dioxide that was put into the drink that subsequently escapes...i.e. it is a zero sum game...no new carbon emissions are being created. While this may have been a parody of some of the arguments being made in support of global warming, it only goes to highlight that the authors of this book are making light of a very serious issue that may threaten the lives of tens of millions of people and the eco-system on which we depend.

Maybe global warming is a big problem, maybe it is not. It is, however, an identified potential risk of devastating proportions. The important thing now is to ask what measures we may take in order to mitigate that risk and to act on that advice. Is it not better to over-estimate the consequences and be fully prepared for the worst, than to underestimate the consequences and to fail to act now while we still have the chance to do so? Since none of us will know the true consequences of global warming until it is too late, I advocate acting now. This book is only likely to persuade people to do otherwise.

In summary, the authors of this book owe me several hours of my life (which were wasted reading it). Save yourself the time and the money. If you want a qualified independent and un-policitically driven opinion on the threat of climate change read the 2007 IPCC report (http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_spm.pdf).