By Walt Barnhart Contributing Editor A SERIOUSLY WRONG ROAD
COVER STORY
Climate change zealots who sound alarms about a pending climate apocalypse that will soon destroy the planet won’t think much of the book False Alarm . Neither will climate change deniers who believe the topic is just the product of liberals intent on controlling our lives. That’s because the author, Bjorn Lomborg, is a climate change believer who thinks activists, the media and politicians have gotten way off course when it comes to the subject, and that the “rhetoric is vastly exaggerated.” He presents a strong, well-researched, rational argument that, while climate change exists, it is not the end of the world. Furthermore, he believes policies currently being taken to address the problem are worse than ineffective, they’re counterproductive. Scary stories told in the media just don’t hold water, Lomborg says. But in this respect, the believers are single minded. The world, they say, is going to end, and nothing but a focus on the climate matters. But their cries ignore the science. For one thing, global warming is causing an unprecedented greening of the world. Because of increases in carbon dioxide over the past three decades, upwards of half of the world’s vegetated area is getting greener, whereas only 4 percent is browning. Reforestation and more intensive agriculture also contribute to the earth’s greening. Hurricanes may be increasing in intensity, but people are getting better at living through them, and global climate- related deaths have decreased tremendously since 1920. Lomborg also thinks zealots often don’t put the topic into context. For instance, humans adapt to climate changes – something few current models touted by activists acknowledge. We find ways of reducing risks and increasing comfort. Airplanes, electric cars, smaller families, solar and wind power, vegetarianism – Lomborg puts these and other climate issues into context, showing where advocates and the media have made critical mistakes. He even demonstrates how the lauded Paris Agreement will accomplish next to nothing, even if all of its promises are kept, reducing the increase in temperature rises by the end of the century to a paltry .4 degrees F. Reports from the United Nations have revealed that the last decade of climate action has resulted in … nothing. And most everything being proposed by climate activists will lead to nothing as well. “Even if the entire rich world stopped all its CO 2 emissions today and never emitted another ton of CO 2 – an utterly devastating scenario some twenty times stronger every year
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