jvanwagoner's review
informative
4.0
This book is a condensed look at the climate change debate (only 106 pages). The author primarily aims to show that scientists disagree about global warming by focusing on seven points discussed in separate chapters.
The format uses a lot of bullet points. Each chapter lists critical findings, then goes into each main point, which only covers a few paragraphs, and ends with a list of references for those who want to explore the topics. Finally, the author goes to the next issue with its documentation until the end of the chapter. Some tables are used but are primarily lists of bullet points.
The first chapter looks at the '97% consensus', explores the different papers that make that claim, and lists the problems with each.
The second chapter looks at why scientists disagree and at things such as conflict of disciplines, scientific uncertainties, the failure of the IPCC, and bias.
The third chapter examines the scientific method vs. political science and points out the missing null hypothesis, models, postulate, and circumstantial evidence.
The fourth chapter looks at the flawed projections of the computer models and explains why they are faulty, explores the forcing and feedback, and reviews specific failed forecasts.
The fifth chapter is about false postulates commonly used by the climate change community, such as the assumption that natural variability cannon explain modern warming, that warming is unprecedented, CO2 leads to temperature change, that solar influence is minimal, and that warming is harmful.
The sixth chapter looks at unreliable circumstantial evidence such as melting ice, sea level rise, droughts, floods, Monsoons, extreme weather, and the thawing permafrost.
The last chapter is on policy implications and suggests that the IPCC not be relied on exclusively for scientific advice. Instead, it indicates that individual nations should take charge of their climate policies (since countries see different impacts) and focus on current real problems.
Overall I found the book very useful and covered the real issues in a very concise manner. I liked that they didn't try to go into technical detail, which would have made this a considerable volume. However, the references provided plenty of technical support for those wanting more supporting details, most from peer-reviewed journals.
I originally wrote this review on 3/3/2016.
The format uses a lot of bullet points. Each chapter lists critical findings, then goes into each main point, which only covers a few paragraphs, and ends with a list of references for those who want to explore the topics. Finally, the author goes to the next issue with its documentation until the end of the chapter. Some tables are used but are primarily lists of bullet points.
The first chapter looks at the '97% consensus', explores the different papers that make that claim, and lists the problems with each.
The second chapter looks at why scientists disagree and at things such as conflict of disciplines, scientific uncertainties, the failure of the IPCC, and bias.
The third chapter examines the scientific method vs. political science and points out the missing null hypothesis, models, postulate, and circumstantial evidence.
The fourth chapter looks at the flawed projections of the computer models and explains why they are faulty, explores the forcing and feedback, and reviews specific failed forecasts.
The fifth chapter is about false postulates commonly used by the climate change community, such as the assumption that natural variability cannon explain modern warming, that warming is unprecedented, CO2 leads to temperature change, that solar influence is minimal, and that warming is harmful.
The sixth chapter looks at unreliable circumstantial evidence such as melting ice, sea level rise, droughts, floods, Monsoons, extreme weather, and the thawing permafrost.
The last chapter is on policy implications and suggests that the IPCC not be relied on exclusively for scientific advice. Instead, it indicates that individual nations should take charge of their climate policies (since countries see different impacts) and focus on current real problems.
Overall I found the book very useful and covered the real issues in a very concise manner. I liked that they didn't try to go into technical detail, which would have made this a considerable volume. However, the references provided plenty of technical support for those wanting more supporting details, most from peer-reviewed journals.
I originally wrote this review on 3/3/2016.
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