| GLOBAL WARMING AND POLITICAL INTIMIDATION How Politicians Cracked Down on Scientists as the Earth Heated Up Raymond S. Bradley Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-1-55849-868-6 | ||||
| ISBN-10 1-55849-868-0 | 167pp. | SC/GSI | $21.95 | |
| Page 17: | That really is bad: the UN is trying to do away with the free will of the climate system! |
| Sarcasm has its place in puncturing pomposity or felling falsehoods. I often use it myself. (The Piranha Brothers were onto something...) |
| Page 28: | Did he want to put global warming on trial, as in the famous Kansas evolution "Monkey Trial"? |
| Wrong state: S/B "Kentucky". In fact, I think this is well enough known that "the famous 'Monkey Trial' " would have sufficed. |
| Page 119: | As I have said, much of the carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuel is absorbed by the oceans; otherwise the global warming problem would be far worse than it is. |
| I don't believe he did say this previously. I was watching for it, in connection with ocean acidification (which he introduces here.) On page 117 he writes: "But although carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased, atmospheric temperatures have not (yet) gone up as much as we might expect. . . . The reason is that much of the heat is being carried away into the oceans..." I think he was thinking of CO2 going into the oceans when he wrote this, but missed putting it on the page. |
| Page 123: | Furthermore, distinguished economists who have examined the problem clearly show that the long-range costs of doing nothing are far greater than the costs of taking the problem on right now. |
| Writing: S/B "far exceed the costs of tackling the problem right now". |
| Page 138: | The models clearly show how explosive eruptions affected global climate in the past... |
| Wording: S/B "volcanic eruptions". |
| Page 142: | Today the hot topic may be global warming; tomorrow it may be [. . .] any number of a host of complex issues... |
| Extra words: S/B "any number of" or "a host of" — but not both. |
| Page 144: | If there is a moral to this sorry tale, it is that. |
| This ending is perfectly correct, because it refers to the previous two sentences. However, it seems abrupt. I would suggest something like: "it is that major media should not simply parrot their sources." |
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