Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor
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ISBN13: 9781594032103Condition: NEWNotes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
The current frenzy over global warming has galvanized the public and cost taxpayers billons of dollars in federal expenditures for climate research. It has spawned Hollywood blockbusters and inspired major political movements. It has given a higher calling to celebrities and built a lucrative industry for scores of eager scientists. In short, ending climate change has become a national crusade. And yet, despite this dominant and sprawling campaign, the facts behind global warming remain as confounding as ever. In Climate Confusion, distinguished climatologist Dr. Roy Spencer observes that our obsession with global warming has only clouded the issue. Forsaking blindingly technical statistics and doomsday scenarios, Dr. Spencer explains in simple terms how the climate system really works, why man's role in global warming is more myth than science, and how the global warming hype has corrupted Washington and the scientific community. The reasons, Spencer explains, are numerous: biases in governmental funding of scientific research, our misconceptions about science and basic economics, even our religious beliefs and worldviews. From Al Gore to Leonardo DiCaprio, the climate change industry has given a platform to leading figures from all walks of life, as pandering politicians, demagogues and biased scientists forge a self-interested movement whose proposed policy initiatives could ultimately devastate the economies of those developing countries they purport to aid. Climate Confusion is a much needed wake up call for all of us on planet earth. Dr. Spencer's clear-eyed approach, combined with his sharp wit and intellect, brings transparency and levity to the issue of global warming as he takes on wrong-headed attitudes and misguided beliefs that have led to our state of panic. Climate Confusion lifts the shroud of mystery that has hovered here for far too long and offers an end to this frenzy of misinformation in our lives.
Spotlight Customer Reviews:
Summary:
View from a Climate Skeptic
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Comment:
Roy Spencer is a climate change skeptic. That does not make him a climate-change denier. His book emphasizes first what some areas of uncertainty exist in the climate change models, and later deals with some of the economic aspects of the political response to perceived threat of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming.
Spenser explains some simple facts about the carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is, along with water vapor, the main byproduct of virtually all processes that free energy by burning a carbon based fuel. This includes the human body's burning sugar. It is also one of the so-called greenhouse gasses. These gasses are transparent to the energy from the light of the sun, but opaque to the infrared energy the earth reflects back. For this reason, increasing levels of CO2, by themselves, would lead to increasing global temperatures.
The key notion is "by themselves". Spenser, a climatologist by training and specialist in satellite monitoring of global temperatures, asserts that if CO2 levels were the only factor, doubling them would increase global temperatures by about 1° F. The assertion of the promoters of anthropogenic global warming is that the small increase from CO2 increases the amount of an more significant greenhouse gas, water vapor. Higher levels of water vapor in the air then raise the temperature higher, which becomes a self feeding system that spirals out of control.
Weather systems, primarily precipitation, serve to cool the earth's surface. Without precipitation, Spenser estimates the earth's surface temperature would be about 140°F! Precipitation and cloud formation, while perhaps the most important factor in surface temperature, is the least understood part of our climate system.
So an alternative outcome to a mechanism that spirals out of control is one that self-corrects, so that slightly higher temperatures result in slightly higher levels of precipitation. Between the two likelihoods, Spenser asserts the self-correcting model is more probable, given that IS a role of the weather systems.
In addition, he weighs in with more observations on clouds and oceans, and also on the apparent lack of strict scientific objectivity on the part of the climate change acolytes. He also casts some aspersions on the state of the historical data reported by those believers.
I found the technical side of his arguments challenging to fully follow, but most of the first half of the book was very readable.
The political and economic half of the book was much more simplistic, and much more strident. His arguments follow a relatively straightforward conservative theme, and examines what he considers the relative futility of the various proposed solutions. Any conservative will find he reasoning very sound.
In summary, Spenser is quite thorough in his presenting an alternative mechanism of the environmental response to increased levels of carbon dioxide. His reasoning throughout looks sound, and the book is an entertaining read. My personal experience of the book was that I was actually more open to the prospect of an anthropogenic warming problem than before I started, but as convinced as before the current proposed course for the United States is an exercise in futility. This is a very valuable read for anyone opened to a balanced technical view that is at odds with the "settled science" of anthropogenic global warming.
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Summary:
Climate Confusion
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Comment:
Everyone should read this book. We highly recommend it. Debunks the propaganda on global warming
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Summary:
The Scientist's Faith and the Environmentalist's Religion
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Comment:
Roy Spencer is a senior climate scientist currently at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, specializing in satellite monitoring of global temperature. He is also one of the minority of qualified climate scientists who are skeptical about the seriousness of global warming. Much of the book is devoted to showing the non-rational basis of those who are concerned about global warming, suggesting that they are essentially following a pagan religion of earth worship, the "scientist's faith and the environmentalist's religion." While there may be some justification for this, I read the book to find an alternative scientific viewpoint on climate change. In common with the mainstream view, Spencer accepts that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and humans have increased its amount in the atmosphere by about 40% so far. He agrees that this carbon dioxide will cause some warming, stating that a doubling of carbon dioxide levels (a standard measure used by scientists) will cause 1 degree Fahrenheit of direct warming. He even admits, on page 149, that "the body of the IPCC scientists' technical report is actually pretty thorough and even-handed on the global warming issue". Let me note that this is not referring to the Working Group 2 report that has been recently shown to contain serious errors. The 1 degree Fahrenheit figure is wrong. If Spencer really disagrees with the commonly accepted value of 1.2 degrees Celsius (twice as much), he should say so and explain why his view is different. Failure to do so suggests he got his units wrong, or is deliberately understating the facts.
The scientific core of the the global warming debate (as opposed to the irrational politics) is how that 1 degree Celsius of forcing from carbon dioxide gets translated into the average prediction of 3 degrees of warming. Spencer begins his response with a chapter on How Weather Works, easily the best chapter in the book. It contains the wonderfully simple statement that the purpose of weather is "to move heat from where there is more, to where there is less." He demonstrates how turbulence in the atmosphere greatly reduces the natural greenhouse effect, reducing the surface temperature from a theoretical 130 degrees Fahrenheit to the actual 57 degrees. He also points out how the role of water vapor and clouds is still poorly understood, and can have a large effect on the feedbacks that are supposed to amplify the carbon dioxide forcing. His argument amounts to showing the large potential in the climate system to have different results than what is predicted by climate models, but instead of providing an alternative model he simply states "Global warming pessimists will now doubt claim that I have too much faith in the existence of stabilization processes in the climate system. I would counter that those scientists have too much faith in crude climate models."
The case for the potential of global warming is mainly based on paleoclimate, the study of climate changes in the Earth's past. Spencer dismisses this entire branch of science based on a single example of a (possibly) flawed study:
"I personally do not put much faith in paleoclimate studies. Since scientists can't even agree on the accuracy of actual thermometer-measured temperatures over the last hundred years, I find claims that we can discern ancient temperatures based upon the tree-ring spacing of a Bristlecone Pine growing at 9,000 feet elevation in a remote corner of Colorado to be a little dubious."
This lack of faith in paleoclimate may possibly be due to the author's faith in Intelligent Design, not mentioned in this book but publicly stated elsewhere (search "Roy Spencer Intelligent Design"). Normally, an author's political or religious views should not be relevant when reviewing a book on science, and using them amounts to an ad hominem attack. However, if his version of Intelligent Design includes a 6,000 year old Earth (which he does not say one way or the other), this has a serious impact on any treatment of Earth Science. Paleoclimate provides the only evidence on which current climate theories can be tested. Spencer dismisses this evidence entirely, then criticizes climate models for not being testable. While making much of the apparent faith of global warming proponents, his own faith clearly has a large impact on his scientific viewpoint.
The last paragraph of the Prologue states:
"Critics of this book will say that my treatment of global warming is obviously biased. And they are right. I have studied the issues enough to have developed some very strong biases on the subject. But it is not a question of whether bias exists - for we are all biased. It is a question of which bias is the best bias to be biased with."
This should be sufficient to suggest that any reader truly interested in understanding the global warming issue, as opposed to having their current beliefs confirmed, should not rely on this single book. But as Spencer correctly points out, this issue is defined by political religious values. That is at least as true about his side of the issue as it is about his opponents.
The book closes with an emotional epilogue about a little girl in Africa who dies because environmentalists would not let DDT be sprayed to prevent malaria. This issue is mentioned seven times during the course of the book, intended to show the harm done by the environmentalist's irrational beliefs. However, the fact is that DDT is widely used in Africa to prevent malaria, with the approval of western environmental agencies who accept the trade off of health benefits against environmental costs. Dr. Spencer writes a good story, but is not very careful with his facts.
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Summary:
Skeptical of the skeptic.
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Comment:
I did not buy this book. I took the time to look up Dr. Roy Spencer beforehand, and it clarified much. You might just search on his name and see a few of his videos. He is a very careful speaker in expressing his skepticism over just about every aspect of global warming, from extent to cause to solutions to motives. He is pretty dogmatic in his selective skepticism. If you are a careful skeptic, you might want to check out the author first.
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Summary:
PLEASE read, then produce all the CO2 youcan; maybe it will warm a little.
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Comment:
Great book! Spencer made the book as easy to comprehend as possible for this complex subject and the deliberately confusing information out there. It is not a really easy read, but lends itself to revisiting chapters and serving as a reference. Great ad for the book today, I see, as Amazon puts warning under each book descriptor saying severe winter conditions will slow deliveries.
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