| CLIMATE CHANGE Our Children Are in Danger Mary Guay LaBelle, FL: Big Lake Press, January 2014 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-1-4947-3360-5 | ||||
| ISBN-10 1-4947-3360-9 | 322pp. | SC/GSI | $14.95 | |
| Page 14: | "I hope to peak interest so that others make changes that benefit their lives, our world, and future generations." |
| Word choice: S/B "pique". |
| Page 14: | "Life threatening news about yourself or a loved one changes everything." |
| Missing hyphen: S/B "Life-threatening news". |
| Page 14: | "Do not kid yourself; global warming is life threatening." |
| Missing hyphen: S/B "life-threatening". |
| Page 22: | "Americans' consumption and waste has skyrocketed in our lifetimes." |
| Number error: S/B "have". |
| Page 24: | "...so the fruits and vegetables from the truck that pulled into our parking area twice a week was all I needed." |
| Number error: S/B "were". |
| Page 26: | "Our new life started when we read Harmony." |
| Format error: S/B in italics. |
| Page 27: | "Our utility company ... ranks high for dumping large quantities of greenhouses gases into the atmosphere." |
| Punctuation error: S/B "greenhouse". |
| Page 28: | "In 2005, 2006, and 2007, the world's greenhouse gas emissions have been above the amounts that would cause that worst-case scenario." |
| Imprecise: S/B "In 2005, 2006, and 2007, the world's greenhouse gas emissions have been above the amounts that, if continued, would cause that worst-case scenario." |
| Page 34: | "Michel de Montayne, French Renascence writer" |
| Spelling error: S/B "Renaissance". |
| Page 41: | "As I read Big Coal..." |
| Format error: S/B in italics. |
| Page 42: | "...and the United States being the only nation to refuse to ratify the Kyoto Protocol..." |
| Missing word: S/B "the only major nation". |
| Page 42: | "The United States never ratified the Kyoto Protocol. That was a shameful and destructive choice on the part of George W. Bush." |
| Historical error. The Kyoto Protocol came up in 1997, during Bill Clinton's term. He and Al Gore never submitted it to the Senate — with justification, for 95 Senators in a "sense of the Senate" resolution had declared they would not accept such limits until they applied to developing countries. (See page 77.) |
| Page 51: | "One-example Klare sites of our vulnerability was..." |
| Unwanted hyphen & word-choice error: S/B "One example Klare cites". |
| Page 55: | "The media also fails to do in-depth reporting on the most life threatening event man has ever faced." |
| Missing hyphen: S/B "life-threatening". (Also, "media" is a plural noun.) |
| Page 57: | "Check the Internet for Thermalhaline Current, Thermalhaline Pump, or Global Ocean Conveyer Belt." |
| Each of these 3 search terms contains a spelling error. They should be "Thermohaline Current", "Thermohaline Pump", and "Global Ocean Conveyor Belt". However, all will yield the desired answer because the search engines tolerate such errors. (See also pp. 83-85. p. 188...) |
| Pages 59-60: | "The atmosphere has no way to let that much CO2 out into space, so it built up in our thin, fragile, and just-right atmosphere." |
| Factual error: Letting CO2 out into space is not how our planet regulates its thermal balance. Only miniscule amounts of CO2 escape at any time. |
| Page 62: | "The carrying capacity numbers for man differs, depending..." |
| Number error: S/B "differ". |
| Page 66: | "CO2 should make up 63% of the atmosphere, and takes one hundred years to break down." |
| Factual error; I'm not sure where it came from. The pre-industrial concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 280 ppm (roughly 0.03%) so perhaps this is a typo: "63" instead of "0.03". |
| Page 67: | "Man skyrocketed CO2 levels past 400 ppm in July 2012." |
| Historical error: S/B "March 2015". (See also pp. 96 & 262.) Actually, the time of reaching 400 ppm varies depending on whether the global average concentration at the surface is used, or the Keeling data from Mauna Kea. The former had reached the milestone figure in March, the latter in November 2015. |
| Page 62: | "Fred Pearse..." |
| Spelling error: S/B "Fred Pearce". (See also p. 223.) |
| Page 69: | "Sulfur-hexaflouride (SF6) and PFC are not natural greenhouse gases; they are products of industry..." |
| Spelling & punctuation errors: S/B "Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)" and "CFCs". |
| Page 71: | "Indiana now has a new senator who will vote as told; there will be no working together problem with him." |
| Missing hyphen: S/B "working-together". |
| Page 72: | "Hurricane Katarina formed in the South Atlantic..." |
| Spelling error: S/B "Cyclone Catarina". (Search engines assume "Hurricane Katrina" is meant.) |
| Page 62: | "Fred Pearse..." |
| Spelling error: S/B "Fred Pearce". |
| Page 84: | "Air currents and the Earth's westward rotation bring the heat and moisture to western Europe." |
| Factual error: S/B "eastward". (No, I'm not sure how she thinks this works.) |
| Page 86: | "You may think the rise in grain prices is due to flooding, draught, and heat waves..." |
| Spelling error: S/B "drought". |
| Page 86: | "The weather news the day I am preparing this book to go to press is: Typhoon Halyan hits the Philippines and is deadliest natural disaster on record." |
| Spelling error: S/B "Typhoon Haiyan". |
| Page 93: | "We use current energy upon or soon after it's arrival from the sun." |
| Punctuation error: S/B "its". (Also "the sun" S/B "the Sun".) |
| Page 111: | "...the great release of sequestered carbon was underway." |
| Missing space: S/B "under way". |
| Page 123: | "Coal's Hay Day" |
| Spelling error: S/B "Coal's Heyday". |
| Page 130: | "Prior to that, gas companies where drilling for gas closer to the surface, which was easier to obtain and didn't involve the earthquake..." |
| Spelling error: S/B "were". |
| Page 131: | "What percent will there be after twenty-five years of exposure." |
| Punctuation error: S/B "exposure?". |
| Page 137: | "With both hydrogen and deuterium, there is no radiation and no possibility of a meltdown." |
| Factual error: hydrogen fusion produces neutron radiation. So does deuterium fusion. There are fusion reactions that produce no neutrons, but they are much harder to achieve. For example, the reaction of helium-3 with ordinary lithium (lithium-6) produces 2 atoms of ordinary helium (helium-4) plus a positron and 16.9 MEV of energy. Positrons are far less penetrating than neutrons; they can be easily shielded. However, the reaction requires higher temperatures to ignite — about ten times higher than hydrogen fusion. Also, side reactions that do produce neutrons are very likely. |
| Page 144: | "Cravens also points out that not one American died as a result of a nuclear accident, but that coal has a tragic death rate." |
| Wording error: S/B "as a result of a commercial nuclear reactor accident". Numerous Americans have died because of accidents involving prompt-criticality accidents. Perhaps the most famous case occurred on 21 May 1946, when Louis Slotin (a Canadian) accidentally allowed the two halves of a critical mass of U-235 to come together. He quickly pulled them apart, but had already gotten a lethal dose of neutron radiation. He died nine days later. (Harry Daghlian suffered a similar accident in August 1945, due to the same device.) Although no commercial nuclear reactor in America has killed anyone, three men died in the explosion of the SL-1 reactor at the National Reactor Testing Laboratory on 3 January 1961. |
| Page 163: | "I'll review what watt, kilowatt (KWH), megawatt (MW), and gigawatt (GW) means." |
| Definition and number errors: S/B "watt, kilowatt (kW), megawatt (MW), and gigawatt (GW) mean". KWH means "kilowatt-hour" which is a unit of energy, not a unit of power. |
| Page 163: | "In our home we use watts (like 29 watts to run a fan one hour)." |
| Definition error: suggests that "watt" is a unit of energy. |
| Page 163: | "Our light company bills us by the KWHs (which is 1,000 watts)." |
| Definition error: suggests that "KWH" is a unit of power. One kW is 1,000 watts; one kWh means using 1,000 watts for a period of one hour. |
| Page 166: | "Ralph Nadar" |
| Spelling error: S/B "Nader". |
| Page 168: | "Mary's Alterative To Energy Supply" |
| Spelling error: S/B "Alternative". |
| Page 169: | "If you leave a 40-watt fan on in a room 24/7, you use 350,400 watts or 350.4 KWH, .3504 MW in a year." |
| Definition error: again confuses units of power and energy. S/B "350,400 wh or 350.4 kwh, 0.3504 Mwh in a year". |
| Page 170: | "Image if we could do that in 50 million homes across America." |
| Spelling error: S/B "Imagine". |
| Page 176: | "The warmer temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico heat the climate enough to kill large trees." |
| Citation required. |
| Page 176: | "We use cloth handkerchiefs, which are gentler than blowing your nose on a tree. If you think that sounds gross, you are brainwashed—get over it." |
| I just can't take the thought of all those slimy tree trunks. Ewwww! But seriously, there is a case to be made for disposable handkerchiefs. |
| Page 179: | "Every year since 2005, Foreign Policy Magazine and the Fund for Peace has studied, ranked countries at risk, and published the list of failing states." |
| Number error: S/B "have". Also, the name of the magazine should be italicized. |
| Page 188: | "The lakes of ice-melt and the moulins raging to Greenland's bedrock make the ice porous and puts the skids under Greenland's ice sheet." |
| Number error: S/B "put". Alternatively, change it to "that melt-water puts". |
| Page 194: | "During America's souring temperatures and drought in the summer of 2012..." |
| Spelling error: S/B "soaring". |
| Page 199: | "Jordon's six million people import 90% of their grain..." |
| Spelling error: S/B "Jordan's". |
| Pages 199-200: | "The growing population and industry is pulling water from the farming area, as well." |
| Number error: S/B "are". Alternatively, "The growth of population and industry is...". |
| Page 200: | "Is Halliburton and its business friends multi-tasking, drilling for natural gas and oil while at the same time building a water market?" |
| Number error: S/B "Are". |
| Page 210: | "In Mexico, one agri-business, from the U.S. bought one million tons of corn at $123 a ton, stockpiled it in warehouses, and sold it as much as $320 more per ton than they paid for it." |
| Word order: S/B "one agri-business bought one million tons of corn from the U.S. at $123 a ton" and "sold it for as much as $320 per ton". (I assume they got the same price as Cargill.) |
| Page 220: | "Beautiful pots contain salad greens, a tomato plant, a cucumber vine, six swiss chard plants, four kale, and seven herbs?" |
| Punctuation error: Was this meant to be an exclamation? |
| Page 226: | "A great question that invites a person to do something—without the soap opera is, 'How would I be doing this differently, if I were willing to let it be easy?' " |
| Punctuation error: S/B "something—without the soap opera—is". |
| Page 267: | "That's really what I want, but where would I begin." |
| Punctuation error: S/B "That's really what I want, but where would I begin?". |
| Page 268: | "The book Living Like Ed (Bagley, 2008) offers information gained from forty years of living green and trying many things." |
| Spelling error: S/B "(Begley, 2008)". (See also p. 285.) |
| Page 271: | "Don't hold your nose they really are odor free." |
| Punctuation error: S/B "Don't hold your nose; they really are odor-free." |
| Page 271: | "I believe little Conrad Hilton use to daydream about running a hotel." |
| Verb tense error: S/B "used". |
| Page 282: | "Our awareness of 'enoughness' is lacking and marketers are free to roam the airways like pickpockets in a sea of easy-prey." |
| Punctuation error: S/B "easy prey". (Mixed metaphors too...) |
| Page 314: | "Their power was great enough that the United States remains the ONLY country that did not sign the Kyoto Protocol." |
| Missing word: S/B "the ONLY major country". The U.S. signed but did not ratify the treaty. Afghanistan ratified it late, in 2013. Canada withdrew in 2011 (effective December 2012) and four minor countries never signed: Andorra, Palestine, South Sudan, and the Vatican. Six or more countries refused to participate in round 2. |
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.