False Alarm, Bjorn Lomborg
False Alarm, Bjorn Lomborg
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False Alarm
How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet

Author: Bjorn Lomborg

Narrator: Jim Seybert

Unabridged: 9 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 07/14/2020

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

An “essential” (Times UK) and “meticulously researched” (Forbes) book by “the skeptical environmentalist” argues that panic over climate change is causing more harm than good 
  Hurricanes batter our coasts. Wildfires rage across the American West. Glaciers collapse in the Arctic. Politicians, activists, and the media espouse a common message: climate change is destroying the planet, and we must take drastic action immediately to stop it. Children panic about their future, and adults wonder if it is even ethical to bring new life into the world. 
 
Enough, argues bestselling author Bjorn Lomborg. Climate change is real, but it’s not the apocalyptic threat that we’ve been told it is. Projections of Earth’s imminent demise are based on bad science and even worse economics. In panic, world leaders have committed to wildly expensive but largely ineffective policies that hamper growth and crowd out more pressing investments in human capital, from immunization to education. In a new epilogue, Lomborg brings the story up to date, showing the ineffective and costly environmental policies of the Biden administration. 
 
False Alarm will convince you that everything you think about climate change is wrong. It points the way toward making the world a vastly better, if slightly warmer, place for us all. 

About Bjorn Lomborg

Bjorn Lomborg is the author of The Skeptical Environmentalist. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time magazine in 2004 and has written for numerous publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. He is presently an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, and in 2004 he started the Copenhagen Consensus, a conference of top economists who come together to prioritize the best solutions for the world’s greatest challenges.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Marcus on August 03, 2020

At this point it's obvious that climate change is as much a political issue as it is an environmental one. If that doesn't sound right, here's some proof. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize in Economics winner wrote a review of False Alarm for the New York Times. He's a smart guy who has written a bunch......more

Goodreads review by Pete on July 17, 2020

False Alarm : How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet (2020) by Bjørn Lomborg is Lomborg's latest book. The gay vegetarian Dane who accepts the IPCC consensus and proposes a carbon tax sets off some environmentalists like few others. His latest book i......more

Goodreads review by L.A. on October 22, 2022

This book makes such a good factual case for thinking about climate change (let's call it emissions) in ways seldom mentioned, including the point that climate change/emissions isn't the world's biggest problem, that there are far more effective ways to address emissions other than the current favor......more

Goodreads review by Darla on January 27, 2022

Pants on fire over climate change? Sure the world is going to end by 2030? Take a breath and read this book. Fear not! This is not a book that denies the existence of climate change. Nor does the author direct you to vote for any particular party or individual. What this book is about is efficient,......more

Goodreads review by Jon on September 08, 2021

Notes from the book: Pretty much all of the "the world is ending because of climate change" predictions are based on 1 - bad information, which the actual science doesn't support and 2 - the assumption that humans won't adapt (eg. purchase more air conditioning units to accommodate the moderately hig......more


Quotes

"Lomborg does not lack solutions. In False Alarm, he advocates a range of cost-benefit tested policies to address both climate change and global poverty.... Lomborg does a service in calling out the environmental alarmism and hysteria that obscure environmental debates rather than illuminate them."—National Review

"Meticulously researched, and well worth a read."—Forbes

"An important book. Mr. Lomborg is a long-standing environmentalist regarded as a heretic by hardliners in the movement because he is an optimist who says that humanity is not doomed."—Iain Martin, The Times (UK)

"The best way to deal with global warming is to increase global prosperity.... The choice we face, Lomborg writes, is between a human future driven by fear and one driven by ingenuity. On that, he is exactly right."—The Bulwark

"Lomborg's most basic premise remains that there are better ways to alleviate human misery than spending taxpayer subsidies than on panic-driven, political non-solutions to a changing climate. Few would argue with that goal."—American Thinker

"Lomborg brands climate change warnings as alarmist, and argues that a massive reduction in fossil fuels would exacerbate global poverty, in this detailed account.... Lomborg is careful to back his cost-benefit analyses of climate policies with surveys and statistics."—Publishers Weekly

"[Lomborg] follows his previous critiques of climate change policy...with a hard-hitting analysis of failing strategies for addressing what he acknowledges is 'a real problem.'...A serious, debatable assessment of a controversial global issue."—Kirkus

"Bjorn Lomborg's new book offers a data-driven, human-centered antidote to the oft-apocalyptic discussion characterizing the effect of human activity on the global climate. Careful, compelling, and above all sensible and pragmatic."—Jordan Peterson, author of 12 Rules for Life

"This is a very important and superbly argued book. Those who have been persuaded that climate change is not happening, and those who think catastrophe is imminent should both read it and know they can rely on Lomborg's meticulous analysis to put them right. The rest of us can be alarmed by his relentless revelation that the world is spending a fortune on making the plight of the poor and the state of the environment worse with foolish and expensive policies."—Matt Ridley, author of How Innovation Works

"False Alarm is a timely and important book. Based on the latest scientific evidence and rigorous economic analysis, it provides a welcome antidote to widespread, irrational panic about a coming climate apocalypse. Instead, it provides a set of smart, rational policies for addressing global warming -- while not losing sight of the myriad other problems that beset our planet, including poverty and inequality. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about our shared human future."—Justin Yifu Lin, former chief economist, the World Bank