OPINION:
CLIMATE OF CORRUPTION: POLITICS AND POWER BEHIND THE GLOBAL WARMING HOAX
By Larry Bell
Foreword by S. Fred Singer
Greenleaf Book Group Press, 25.95, 300 pages
Gallup’s annual environment poll conducted earlier this month revealed that “Americans continue to express less concern about global warming than they have in the past …” even as their “self-professed understanding of global warming has increased over time - from 69 percent … in 2001, to 74 percent in 2006 and 80 percent in the current poll.”
Nevertheless, the man-made-climate-catastrophe scientists, with enormous financial support from big government and the aid of media and PR promoters, continue to hawk their limited view of the atmosphere.
The challenge to convince the increasingly cognizant American public that their dependence on fossil fuels is dangerously raising global temperatures is not going to get any easier with exposes like “Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax” by University of Houston professor Larry Bell.
For those who simply want an introduction to government-sponsored climate research and results or for the “old timers” in the air-science profession like me, this is a good synopsis of the latest fads and fallacies of the ill-advised “industry” of global-warming science.
Mr. Bell divides his work into four reasoned sections to guide the reader through not only the history and hysteria surrounding the global-climate issue but also, as his subtitle reveals, the politics and power behind what he adeptly characterizes as a hoax.
In the first section, titled “Setting the Records Straight,” Mr. Bell reviews some of the ancient and more recent climate history; and notes, regarding science PR shenanigans, that a “basic tactic used by calculating ’hysteria hypesters’ is to treat propaganda as obvious fact.”
In Section Two, “Political Hijackers of Science,” Mr. Bell continues the theme that “[i]t is difficult to imagine a time in recent history when so much political hype has swirled around so little substance.” And he goes on to ask a key question many of us have asked: “Is it logical to wager trillions of dollars based upon flawed science practices and suspect agendas?”
A collection of chapters addressing cap-and-trade, climate science as religion, and “green” energy are found in Section Three, “Carbon Demonization Scams.” The book once again succinctly summarizes political and scientific problems with government schemes, backed by politically influenced science, to solve the critical national and global issue of energy supply and demand.
But, practical solutions are clearly spelled out in Section Four, “Retaking America’s Future.” Here Mr. Bell proposes the simple, effective path of re-energizing free enterprise, demanding truth and accountability in politics and scientific practice and recognizing, promoting and exercising America’s historic exceptionalism.
A distinguishing feature of “Climate of Corruption” is Mr. Bell’s own witty artwork that initiates the introduction and each chapter of the book. His able drawings provide pictorial understanding for each portion’s topic.
Throughout “Climate of Corruption,” Mr. Bell aptly demonstrates there are “big differences between environmental stewardship ideals, which most of us subscribe to, and the ideologically moralistic, antidevelopment, obstructionist activism that exemplifies much of today’s environmental zealotry.” But, to a great extent, it is this zealotry that substantially misguides efforts to identify and successfully address real threats to the environment, energy sufficiency and ultimately, humanity itself.
As massive natural disasters and momentous geopolitical turmoil continue to erupt, the American public, as indicated by Gallup’s poll, is continuing to put global issues into perspective. “Climate of Corruption” is a book that will buttress intelligent decisions about where U.S. dollars and traditional American ingenuity and compassion will do the most good to alleviate the real environmental and man-made calamities that affect the world community.
Anthony J. Sadar, a certified consulting meteorologist, is the primary author of “Environmental Risk Communication: Principles and Practices for Industry” (CRC Press/Lewis Publishers, 2000).
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