THE INQUISITION OF CLIMATE SCIENCE
Reviewed 12/05/2011
THE INQUISITION OF CLIMATE SCIENCE
James Lawrence Powell
New York: Columbia University Press, August 2011 |
High
|
| ISBN-13 978-0-231-15718-6 |
| ISBN-10 0-231-15718-5 |
232pp. |
HC/GSI |
$27.95 |
Errata:
| Page 66: |
"Between 1998 and 2005, the Annapolis Center received $763,500 million from ExxonMobil." |
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This figure is impossibly large. I suspect the correct amount S/B $763,500. |
| Page 68: |
At end of page: "(138)." |
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These are page numbers in The Jasons, a book by Ann K. Finkbeiner, as Note 42 for Chapter 7 makes clear. |
| Page 69: |
Quoting a former JCS chairman at a cocktail party: "Well, it might be a good idea to throw in a nuke once in awhile just to keep the other side [in the Vietnam War] guessing." |
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See "Real Men Use Megatons" in this review. |
| Page 70: |
"In the 1950s, Dyson endorsed the idea of powering spacecraft with nuclear explosions." |
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The author considers this idea totally wacky. I don't. See my review of Project Orion. |
| Page 71: |
"Blogger 'Gail' may have spoken for them in a letter she addressed to the New York Times..." |
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I believe I know who this is. Should I tell? |
| Page 82: |
Quoting Michael Crichton: "Once again, the fact that some people are hurt and shrugged off because an abstract cause is said to be greater than any human consequences." |
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There's a verb misssing from this sentence. I've made a guess at what and where: S/B "the fact is that". |
| Page 85: |
Quoting Bjorn Lomborg: "The costs and benefits of the proposed measures against global warming . . . is the worst way to spend our money." |
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That sentence dows not parse correctly. Is the author misquoting Lomborg? Or is this just a number error: S/B "are the worst ways". |
| Page 90: |
"The entry for Monckton in the Inhofe "Who's Who" faults the United Nations for not apologizing to him for having abolished the Medieval Warm Period. In retaliation, Monckton recommended that the UN abolish the IPCC." |
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This could be clearer. |
| Page 91: |
"Monckton, who has no academic credentials and who has never held an academic post..." |
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Page 88 says he has a degree in classics from Cambridge and a diploma in journalism. |
| Page 144: |
"Vostock recorded the lowest temperature ever measured: -128.6°F." |
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Too general: S/B "the lowest outdoor temperature ever measured on Earth" or similar. |
| Page 144: |
"The air is almost completely dry and lacks oxygen and carbon dioxide." |
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I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean. Clearly the Russians were able to breathe outside at Vostok without pressure suits. |
| Page 146: |
"By measuring the pull of gravity as it sails far overhead, the GRACE satellite is able to calculate the mass of Antarctic ice." |
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There are two: S/B "the GRACE satellites are able". Also, a nit: they themselves don't do any calculations; that's done on the ground using data on their precise positions. See |
| Page 154: |
"After Hansen spoke at the 2005 American Geophysical Union's meeting about the dangers of global warming..." |
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Word order: S/B "the American Geophysical Union's 2005 meeting". |
| Page 163: |
In the AAAS quote "...global climate change caused by human activities is now underway ..." |
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Missing space: S/B "under way". |
| Page 167: |
In the quote from IPCC AR4 "...perhaps sooner if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate. Its total area will likely shrink from the present 500,000 to 100,000 km2 [sic] by the year 2035." |
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Misleading due to grammar error: S/B "The total area of these glaciers will likely shrink". The subject of the sentence is plural ("Glaciers in the Himalayas") but the singular "Its" makes it possible (momentarily) to think the second sentence refers to Earth. |
| Page 174: |
"The administration should have said, 'Based on sound science, the government's standard is that there should be no more than 50 parts of arsenic per million.'" |
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Incorrect: S/B "no more than 100 parts" because it refers to the GW Bush administration backing the drinking water arsenic standard off to 100 ppm (versus the Clinton administration's 50 ppm). |
There are some index errors. But these involve the indexed terms shifting ahead or back by one page due to manuscript revisions. I don't consider them worth pointing out.
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