An eminently readable and often humorous critique, Meltdown documents hundreds of exaggerations from scientists, politicians and the media, and ties them together with the common thread of rational self-interest.

"This spirited critique challenges the conventional doom saying about global warming. Climatologist Michaels acknowledges that the earth is warming because of anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but he insists that the warming will probably be modest and that nature and humanity will easily adjust to it. Writing in a lucid, engaging style supported by a mountain of data, he debunks such recent scare stories as melting ice caps and glaciers, intensifying storms and droughts, species die-offs and a Day After Tomorrow-style ice age. He argues that researchers and reporters mistakenly ascribe normal fluctuations in local weather to global warming and commonly ignore the facts (reports that the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is being submerged by rising sea levels, for example, ignored research demonstrating that sea levels in that region have actually been falling). Michaels, who is a fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, sometimes allows his own agenda to intrude. Advocates of the precautionary principle will note that he fails to demonstrate his claim that 'there is no known, feasible policy that can stop or even slow these climate changes.' And while he chalks up global warming alarmism to an unholy alliance of climatologists hungry for grants and media sensationalism, his remedy for biased science is not better science but a 'wider source of bias' in the form of more funding of climatology by the fossil fuel industry. He also calls for the abolition of academic tenure-a crushing blow against an independent professorate that libertarians and their allies in the world of academia view as the intellectual wellspring of the regulatory state. Nonetheless, Michaels's challenge to global warming orthodoxy should invigorate the debate over climate change." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Michaels (environmental studies, University of Virginia) argues that scientists, politicians, and the media too often exaggerate their claims about the environment, especially with regard to global warming. He documents hundreds of exaggerations, misstatements, and errors that have appeared in major peer-reviewed scientific journals and in top media outlets, and explains why the gap between perception and reality persists. A section of color graphics is included.
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