Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming

First edition cover
Author	Bjørn Lomborg
Cover artist	Chip Kidd
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Knopf Publishing Group
Publication date	2007-09-04
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	272
ISBN	978-0-307-26692-7
OCLC	423500317
Dewey Decimal	363.738/74 22
LC Class	QC981.8.G56 L657 2007
Preceded by	The Skeptical Environmentalist

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming is a book by the Danish statistician and political scientist Bjørn Lomborg. The book is a sequel to The Skeptical Environmentalist (first published in Danish in 1998), which in English translation brought the author to world attention. Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars without the same return on investment, often are based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions, and may have very little impact on the world's temperature for centuries. Lomborg concludes that a limited carbon tax is needed in the First World as well as subsidies from the First World to the Third World to help fight ongoing humanitarian crises.

Reviews and critique

In a New York Times review, Andrew Revkin says that Lomborg uses the book to reprise "his earlier argument with a tighter focus. He tries to puncture more of what he says are environmental myths, like the imminent demise of polar bears."^[1]

Economist Frank Ackerman of Tufts University and the Stockholm Environment Institute, wrote a review of Lomborg's book.^[2] In it, Ackerman criticised Lomborg for his views on the economics of climate change, including the costs of the Kyoto Protocol and the use of cost-benefit analysis.

IPCC lead author Brian O'Neill^[3] wrote a mixed review of Cool It, concluding:^[4]

[...] Bjorn Lomborg is like the Oliver Stone of climate change. He has written a book that sets out to support a certain point of view, and, unless you are an expert, you will never know which facts are correct and appropriately used and which are not. You might not be aware that large (and crucial) chunks of the story are skipped altogether. But like a Stone movie, it is a well-told tale and raises some questions that are worth thinking about. So if you are going to read only one book on climate, don’t read this one. But if you are going to read ten, reading Lomborg may be worthwhile.

The Lomborg Deception

In 2010, Howard Friel wrote The Lomborg Deception, a book-length critique of Cool It, which traces Lomborg’s many references and tests their authority and substance. Friel has said he found "misrepresentation of academic research, misquotation of data, reliance on studies irrelevant to the author’s claims and citation of sources that seem not to exist".^[5]

According to Lomborg, Friel's book appears to be aimed primarily at the popular version of Cool It as opposed to the longer more thoroughly cited edition.^[8]

Documentary film

On 12 November 2010, Lomborg released a feature-length documentary film Cool It in the United States.^[9][10][11]

The Atlantic says Cool It is "an urgent, intelligent, and entertaining account of the climate policy debate, with a strong focus on cost-effective solutions".^[12]

Literature

• Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming, Knopf Publishing Group (2007-09-04), ISBN 978-0-307-26692-7 (Hardcover, 253 pages)

See also

• The Skeptical Environmentalist

References

External links

• Cool it official page on lomborg.com