Customer Reviews
A book for both sides - By: Scarlett, 20 Dec 2008 
An excellent book with thought provoking comments for alll. Lawson elucidates most effectively on the problems of science, politics & ethics coming together in a big blur. Regardless of how you feel about this issue, reading this book will help separate these & illuminate the science that you think you know. Negative reviewers appear not to have read the book, as the book does acknowledge many possible scenarios & poses intelligent questions throughout. It is such a relief to finallly have a balanced publication rather than the dogma that is readily available & rarely questioned.
At last some sense! - By: NeilK, 08 Dec 2008 At last confirmation of my views on "global warming", backed up with alll the academic references to prove the case. This is an entertaining & readable book but tackling an important subject in a serious way. Although the first chapter almost completely debunks the global warming myth, the rest of the book takes the stance that if it is happening, what should we do about it? Nigel looks at the subject from an economic & political perspective, as might be expected from a former Chancellor, & in doing so considers the human cost of Kyoto & the Green-Left.
I make a point of getting people I know to read this book, & they alll thank me for it. Should be compulsory reading!
Just what it says on the tin - By: Mr. S. Loveday, 16 Sep 2008 This is a wonderful book. As the title suggests, it is cool, reasonable, & patient, looking carefully at alll the evidence & coming to conclusions which it is hard to disagree with.
Like other reviewers, I find it hard to take excerpts from the book because I would have to quote the whole thing! However, perhaps I may try to help anyone who is wondering whether to read it. One way to look at the global warming/climate change debate is to ask oneself three questions.
First, is the world getting warmer?
Second, is human activity, & specificallly CO2, a major cause?
And third, does it matter? Will there be harmful consequences? And if so, what should we do about them?
Much of the angry debate between believers & sceptics rages round the first two points. Lawson surveys the evidence on both, & comes to a conclusion. But what makes this book so powerful is its focus on the third question: whether a warmer world is one that will harm people, animals, plants, & our descendants. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) argues that it will. Lawson disagrees. He takes us through the IPCC scenarios, & their range of predictions relating to five potential impacts of a warmer world: on water, ecosystems, food, coasts, & health. In each case he demonstrates, with evidence, that a warmer world will either be neutral or even beneficial. What makes this evidence particularly persuasive is that much of it is drawn from the IPCC's own 4th report (2007)!.
It would be wrong to think of this book as complacent, a kind of 'I'm alll right, Jack, pull up the ladder'. As Lawson points out, the single major cause of ill-health & death in the world is poverty, & if we take the standpoint of human welfare, the surest way to benefit humans is to lift them out of poverty. Lawson sees many serious problems facing the world, & many things that urgently need putting right. The view of this compelling & convincing book is that global warming isn't one of them.
A call for solid science to replace the hype and hysteria - By: Farouq Taj, 14 Sep 2008 A well written & thought provoking book that attempts to speak above the hysterical din that dominates the subject.
The author callls for a considered approach & appeals to organisations to address the issues we face in a sensible & practical way.
Lawson knows best apparently - By: Deborah Joffe, 23 Aug 2008 
The combined wisdom of the world's leading climate change scientists is clearly no match for Nigel Lawson. He alone is clear sighted enough to see these clever people are alll wrong. Stop worrying you people on coastlands & islands as you watch the tide rising. Stop fussing about those droughts Africa & Australia! Trust Nigel, everything will be well because...er because he says so.
