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A bit tangentially off topic. Today I encountered this book titled "False Alarm". It is supposed to be the book that is quite balanced in perspective in terms o

A bit tangentially off topic. Today I encountered this book titled "False Alarm". It is supposed to be the book that is quite balanced in perspective in terms of environmental crisis. I'm going to get it. But first I'm curious of HN readers who have read the book, what do you think of it?

JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
It looks like climate change denial nonsense.
- christiansakai 6y ago
  Have you read about it?
  - lumost 6y ago
    Assuming this is the book "False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet" I don't think you can seriously take it as a piece of serious balanced research. The book titles itself based on what it is, which is the same thing as hundreds of other books peddling cherry picked facts to say that the "establishment" is wrong on climate change. These books take whatever micro-divergence from climate models is currently being observed and trump it up as a refutation of all climate models and of the entire macro-trend. 15 years ago it was the lack of deep ocean warming which has now been observed. I'm sure that in 2021 there are innumerable discrepancies and poorly understood phenomena which could be used for this purpose.
    - perl4ever 6y ago
      > a refutation of all climate models and of the entire macro-trend Is this Lomborg you're saying is a denier? What are you basing that on? I can believe that he is encouraging others who want to do nothing about climate change, but I didn't think he was objectively a denier. People calling him one may be playing into his shtick.
      - bilegeek 6y ago
        In the end, it doesn't matter if he believes or not; if he acts like a denier, no matter how milquetoast, he is de facto a denier, and perpetuating denial.
        perl4ever 6y ago
        Acts like a denier? Either he does or he doesn't. If he's not denying climate change, then it's a lie or willful disregard for the truth to say he is, and encourages the people who think it's a religion and a conspiracy. The morality of slander is not even the point, it's that tactically, you don't want to be seen making unfounded attacks because you're essentially ad-hominem'ing yourself. I read a book of his a long time ago, and I am not 100% sure he isn't a denier these days, but he wasn't then, even though he definitely was trolling as hard as he could.
    - christiansakai 6y ago
      Yes that's the book. Okay thanks for the review.
- rodonn 6y ago
  Book review by Joe Stiglitz https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/books/review/bjorn-lomborg-false-alarm-joseph-stiglitz.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/books/review/bjorn-lombor...
  - christiansakai 6y ago
    Thank you!
- refurb 6y ago
  Indeed. It doesn't fit how I currently view the world so therefore it is false.
edoceo 6y ago
I'm going to judge this book by the cover. "False Alarm" is not the title of balanced work. vs something like "Analysis and review of historical climates data and indicators of human impact"
EdwardDiego 6y ago
Ah yep, it's Lomborg, he's always controversial in this area, although he isn't denying anthropogenic climate change. Just be aware that he's a lecturer in statistics, not a climate scientist, and he's had issues in the past with the scientific accuracy of his books. > DCSD made its decision in January 2003. In it, DCSD found that, by customary scientific standards, the defendant had acted at odds with good scientific practice in his systematically one-sided choice of data and in his arguments. If the book was intended to be evaluated as science and not as a contribution to the general debate, then in addition the scientific message had been so distorted that the objective criteria for establishing scientific dishonesty had been met. > DCSD did not find a sufficient basis, however, on which to establish that the defendant had misled his readers with intent or gross negligence. DCSDnoted, in this context, that in the preface to the book the defendant had himself drawn attention to the fact that he was no expert in environmental issues. https://ufm.dk/en/publications/2004/files-2004/annual-report-2003-danish-committees-scientific-dishones.pdf https://ufm.dk/en/publications/2004/files-2004/annual-report...
- christiansakai 6y ago
  Ahh, thank you for the info.

JohnJamesRambo 6y ago

It looks like climate change denial nonsense.

christiansakai 6y ago
Have you read about it?
- lumost 6y ago
  Assuming this is the book "False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet" I don't think you can seriously take it as a piece of serious balanced research. The book titles itself based on what it is, which is the same thing as hundreds of other books peddling cherry picked facts to say that the "establishment" is wrong on climate change. These books take whatever micro-divergence from climate models is currently being observed and trump it up as a refutation of all climate models and of the entire macro-trend. 15 years ago it was the lack of deep ocean warming which has now been observed. I'm sure that in 2021 there are innumerable discrepancies and poorly understood phenomena which could be used for this purpose.
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    > a refutation of all climate models and of the entire macro-trend Is this Lomborg you're saying is a denier? What are you basing that on? I can believe that he is encouraging others who want to do nothing about climate change, but I didn't think he was objectively a denier. People calling him one may be playing into his shtick.
    - bilegeek 6y ago
      In the end, it doesn't matter if he believes or not; if he acts like a denier, no matter how milquetoast, he is de facto a denier, and perpetuating denial.
      - perl4ever 6y ago
        Acts like a denier? Either he does or he doesn't. If he's not denying climate change, then it's a lie or willful disregard for the truth to say he is, and encourages the people who think it's a religion and a conspiracy. The morality of slander is not even the point, it's that tactically, you don't want to be seen making unfounded attacks because you're essentially ad-hominem'ing yourself. I read a book of his a long time ago, and I am not 100% sure he isn't a denier these days, but he wasn't then, even though he definitely was trolling as hard as he could.
  - christiansakai 6y ago
    Yes that's the book. Okay thanks for the review.
rodonn 6y ago
Book review by Joe Stiglitz https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/books/review/bjorn-lomborg-false-alarm-joseph-stiglitz.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/books/review/bjorn-lombor...
- christiansakai 6y ago
  Thank you!
refurb 6y ago
Indeed. It doesn't fit how I currently view the world so therefore it is false.

edoceo 6y ago

I'm going to judge this book by the cover. "False Alarm" is not the title of balanced work. vs something like "Analysis and review of historical climates data and indicators of human impact"

EdwardDiego 6y ago

Ah yep, it's Lomborg, he's always controversial in this area, although he isn't denying anthropogenic climate change. Just be aware that he's a lecturer in statistics, not a climate scientist, and he's had issues in the past with the scientific accuracy of his books. > DCSD made its decision in January 2003. In it, DCSD found that, by customary scientific standards, the defendant had acted at odds with good scientific practice in his systematically one-sided choice of data and in his arguments. If the book was intended to be evaluated as science and not as a contribution to the general debate, then in addition the scientific message had been so distorted that the objective criteria for establishing scientific dishonesty had been met. > DCSD did not find a sufficient basis, however, on which to establish that the defendant had misled his readers with intent or gross negligence. DCSDnoted, in this context, that in the preface to the book the defendant had himself drawn attention to the fact that he was no expert in environmental issues. https://ufm.dk/en/publications/2004/files-2004/annual-report-2003-danish-committees-scientific-dishones.pdf https://ufm.dk/en/publications/2004/files-2004/annual-report...

christiansakai 6y ago
Ahh, thank you for the info.