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

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming
First edition cover
Author(s)	Bjørn Lomborg
Cover artist	Chip Kidd
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Non-fiction
Publisher	Knopf Publishing Group
Publication date	2007-09-04
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	272
ISBN	9780307266927
OCLC Number	423500317
Dewey Decimal	363.738/74 22
LC Classification	QC981.8.G56 L657 2007

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.

Media

The New York Times says

“	In his short new book, “Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming,” Mr. Lomborg reprises 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.	”
—The New York Times, [1]

“	He therefore took on the Augean stables undertaking of checking every one of the hundreds of citations in Cool It. Friel's conclusion, as per his book's title, is that Lomborg is "a performance artist disguised as an academic." I don't want to be as trusting as the reviewers who praised Lomborg's scholarship without (it seems) bothering to check his references, so rather than taking Friel at his word just as they took Lomborg at his, I've done my best to do that checking. Although Friel engages in some bothersome overkill, overall his analysis is compelling.	”
—Sharon Begley, Newsweek[2] [3]

Reviews and critique

Economist Frank Ackerman of Tufts University and the Stockholm Environment Institute, wrote a review of Lomborg's book.^[4] 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^[5] wrote a mixed review of Cool It, concluding:^[6]

[...] 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 by Howard Friel offers a 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".^[7]

Documentary film

Main article: Cool It (film)

On 12 November 2010, Lomborg released a feature-length documentary film Cool It in the United States.^[8][9][10]

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".^[11]

The Bloggers' Briefing reviews Bjorn Lomborg and his movie Cool It at Accuracy In Media.^[12]

Literature

• Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming, Knopf Publishing Group (2007-09-04), ISBN 9780307266927 (Hardcover, 253 pages)

See also

• The Skeptical Environmentalist

References

1. ^ Revkin, Andrew C.Q (2007-11-13). "Challenges to Both Left and Right on Global Warming". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/science/earth/13book.html?pagewanted=all. 
2. ^ Begley, Sharon (22 February 2010). "Book Review: The Lomborg Deception: Debunking the claims of the climate-change skeptic". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/233942. Retrieved 22 February 2010. 
3. ^ Friel, Howard (2010). The Lomborg Deception – Setting the Record Straight About Global Warming. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300161034. http://yalepress.yale.edu/Yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300161038. 
4. ^ Ackerman, F. (12 April 2008). "Hot, It's Not: Reflections on Cool It, by Bjorn Lomborg" (PDF). Climatic Change 89 (3-4): 435–446. doi:10.1007/s10584-008-9403-3. http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/Hot_its_not08.pdf. 
5. ^ The Watson Institute for International Studies (no date). "Brian C. O'Neill : The Watson Institute for International Studies". The Watson Institute for International Studies website. http://www.watsoninstitute.org/contacts_detail.cfm?id=6. Retrieved 2009-12-07. 
6. ^ O'Neill, B.C. (2008). "Book Review: "Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming" by Bjorn Lomborg.". Population and Development Review 34: 259–362. http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/PCC/pubs/PDR.ONeillReview.PGS359-362.pdf. Retrieved 2009-12-07. 
7. ^ Richard Girling. The Lomborg Deception: Setting the Record Straight About Global Warming by Howard Friel, The Sunday Times, April 18, 2010.
8. ^ Film's official website
9. ^ "'Cool It' movie seeks climate solutions: Lomborg", Reuters
10. ^ Empire Movies review
11. ^ Crook, Clive (2010-10-6). "Bjorn Lomborg's Movie: Is Quiet the New Loud?". The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/10/bjorn-lomborgs-movie-is-quiet-the-new-loud/64186/. 
12. ^ "The Bloggers' Briefing with Bjorn Lomborg and his movie COOL IT". Accuracy In Media. 2010-10-10. http://www.aim.org/video/aim-bloggers-briefing-with-bjorn-lomborg-and-his-movie-cool-it/. 

External links

• Cool it official page on lomborg.com