Useful study of how the climate is changing
Will Podmore, A reviewer, 06/04/2007

Michaels' very useful book examines the way the media, particularly the liberal press and the BBC, distort the realities of climate change. Yes, the climate is changing, but no, it is not racing to some irreversible tipping point presaging imminent catastrophe. Blair and other practised liars want to alarm us into cutting our living standards and paying out more taxes. Michaels punctures the rhetoric with close reasoning and hard facts. The scientist who started much of the global warming furore, NASA’s James Hansen, now predicts warming by 0.75 degrees Centigrade over the next 50 years, i.e. 0.15 degrees Centigrade a decade. He admitted, “Emphasis on extreme scenarios may have been appropriate at one time, when the public and decision-makers were relatively unaware of the global warming issue. Now, however, the need is for demonstrably objective climate … scenarios consistent with what is realistic under current conditions.” The New York Times wrote, “Arctic Ice is Melting at Record level, Scientists Say. The melting of Greenland glaciers and Arctic Ocean sea ice this past summer reached levels not seen in decades, scientists reported today.” (8 December 2002.) If the NYT’s editors cannot see that the second sentence contradicts the first, how reliable is their scientific judgment of anything? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that sea levels will rise by between 0.2 and 0.6 metres by 2100, i.e. at most, by 60 centimetres in the next 93 years. Warming will bring warmer winters, more rain and longer growing seasons, thus enabling more food crops to grow. Warmer winters will also reduce the numbers of old people dying from cold – always a far great number than those dying from excessive summer heat.

Also recommended: The skeptical environmentalist, by Bjorn Lomborg. Blue gold, by Maude Barlow. Panic nation, by Stanley Feldman. The new age, by Martin Gardner. Eco-imperialism, by Paul Driessen. Global crises, global solutions, by Bjorn Lomborg.

IT'S NOT THE SKY FALLING, IT'S THE TEMPERATURES RISING
Larry C., someone with no political agenda, 01/31/2007

We've heard the skeptic's viewpoint before. Whether you're comforted by MELTDOWN's message or outraged by it, the question remains: Isn't it better to err on the side of caution? Are we really so ignorant to think that 6.6 tons of greenhouse gases emitted per person per year in the United States will NOT impact the environment? What books like HEAT and INCONVENIENT TRUTH are attempting to do is rouse a very complacent America into positive action. MELTDOWN only seems bent on luring us back to sleep. Why is that? This is not a political issue for most of us, nor is it for other concerned citizens. There is no debate that our current energy/fuel sources are not sustainable. In light of that which is worse: Spending millions on policies to explore and integrate sustainable energy sources like solar and wind power, on the production of electric vehicles and hybrids, into our modern life, or to spend billions on a war to maintain our current fleeting ways. Before we write off global warming as doomsaying, let's deflate Big Oil's power and influence in governmennt and the media. Then the truth will have a way of coming out one way or another. Until then books like MELTDOWN will do its very best to keep the smokestacks pluming.

Also recommended: Renewable Energy, Heat, Inconvenient Truth, Garbageland

Think for a second
Cedric, a citizen of the Earth, 01/22/2007

The point of this book is to tell us that journalists, environmentalists and politicians are conspiring to make us believe about global warming. Now, take a second to think about who is trying to make us believe that there is no global warming or that it is not human-related... oil companies, car companies, and other lobbies financed by big corporations. Now I wonder who has a 'vested interest' in hiding the truth? Remember when the big tobacco were pretending that cigarettes were not harmful? At some point they were even trying to make the crowds believe that cigarettes were good for health. For crying out loud, if you want to read a REAL book about global warming with SOLID REFERENCES to PEER-REVIEWED SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE, read 'The weather makers', 'Heat' or 'An Inconvenient Truth'. By the way, these biased arguments about cow farts are killing me: they do contribute to global warming, but it is humans that extensively developed the breeding of cows, hence multiplying their environmental impact as well. Human-made global warming is not just the cars we drive and the electricity we use, it is also the food we eat, the clothes we wear, etc.

Also recommended: An Inconvenient Truth, Stop Gobal Warming, The Weather Makers, Heat

Exceptional Book
John Matta, Logistics Professional, 01/31/2006

Meltdown is a great read and extremely informative. This book is well documented. It takes the reader through the science, uses facts, figures, and examples. Before someone decides that the sky is falling due to global warming they need to read this book.

Also recommended: The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg

There Is Global Warming But It's Not What You Think It Is: The Sky Is Not Falling
Ted Munley, JMU student, Whiz, A reviewer, 12/10/2005

For those of you whose understanding of climate change or global warming comes from the main stream media (New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, CBS-TV, et al) this book is a must read, that is if you subscribed to the 'chicken little' thesis that the sky is falling, or in the case of climate change that we will be unable to live on planet earth because rising global temperatures will destroy civilization. The sub-title of Meltdown reads 'the Predictable Distortion of global Warming by Scientists, Politicians and the Media' and in this he admirably succeeds in documenting and proving. This spirited critique challenges the conventional doom saying about global warming. Climatologist Michaels acknowledges that the earth is warming because of anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but he insists that the warming will probably be modest and that nature and humanity will easily adjust to it. Writing in a lucid, engaging style supported by a mountain of data, he debunks such recent scare stories as melting ice caps and glaciers, intensifying storms and droughts, species die-offs and a Day After Tomorrow–style ice age. The book amply illustrates the incompetence, ignorance, and lack of skepticism by the science writers, as well as their employers, in the main stream media. They come across as cheerleaders with a bull horn instead of skeptical fact reporting and investigative individuals they claim to be. For example, in an USA Today article on the effect of warming sea temperature, the text tells us an increase of 10 degrees will cause a volume increase of .1%. The accompanying graphic shows a 100% increase that are in fact 1000 times more than the actual effect. He argues that researchers and reporters mistakenly ascribe normal fluctuations in local weather to global warming and commonly ignore the facts (reports that the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is being submerged by rising sea levels, for example, ignored research demonstrating that sea levels in that region have actually been falling). It's inspiring to me that a few individuals like Michaels, and some others, armed only with critical intelligence and courage, choose to stand against the tide of demagogues and chicken littles. Without the few rays of sanity provided by people like Michaels, the world would seem completely mad to me.