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Rating:  More Details: Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis @Amazon Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis @aStore |
Customer Reviews:
Typical inaccurate scaremongering
Mr Gore - who recently appeared on Conan O'Brien's NBC show and uttered that the temperature a couple of kilometres below the surface of the Earth was "millions of degrees" again shows up his lack of scientific knowledge with this book.
Mr Gore flatly refuses to debate anyone on the subject of Global Warming. I can see why.
It is extremely worrying that Mr Gore and his publishers have turned to faking and photoshopping to influence young children, who this edition of the book is aimed at. The photoshopping that has gone on for the cover is disgusting. Firstly Florida has shrunk. Secondly, Artic ice has been removed. Thirdly, Cuba no longer exists. Fourthly, the hurricane threatening Florida is the rotating in the wrong direction.
The front cover sums up how honest and scientific this book is. It's a sham.
Do not let your children read this propaganda.
A recommended reading, whether your concern is global warming or energy independence 
First, do not be confused, this is not a book dealing with the science or the GW controversy like the An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It (AIT), of which back then I wrote a critical review here at Amazon because of Gore's exaggerations and some flagrant inaccuracies. Our Choice is a well-research and comprehensive treatise written for the general public (there is even a children's version - Our Choice: How We Can Solve the Climate Crisis (Young Reader Edition)) This time Gore did his homework very thoroughly, and all possible options regarding low-carbon fuels and energy are examined, to a level of detail only found in more technical books. Also, and for the benefit of the layman, for each of the options he briefly explains how energy production works. The chapters on natural resources, deforestation, and population are quite good.
What most impressed me is the fact that Gore does not pick any winners beforehand, as many environmentalist groups love to do; instead he presents the whole menu of options, even the potential of nuclear energy is discussed, and surprisingly, also bioethanol, as both of these options are rejected by many environmentalist advocates. He even goes into the details explaining why Brazilian sugarcane ethanol is sustainable and a low-carbon fuel as compared to American corn ethanol, though his favorites are second and third generation biofuels. He also presents quite a fair discussion of the food vs fuel debate. Gore recognizes the importance of clean low-carbon fuels and electricity in order for the new electric and hybrid plug-in vehicles to actually contribute in reducing greenhouse gases. It also called my attention that right from the beginning Gore now relates the urgent need for low-carbon energy not only to climate change but also for national security and energy independence reasons.
Despite a more technical and moderate approach, every time Gore talks about climate change he insists on remind us about the "scientific consensus" and the "fact" that the debate is over. I find this repeatedly preaching really annoying because it feels like scientism, in the omnipotence sense. In the first place, avoiding such unnecessary repetition could have helped the book to be attractive also to the "non believers" but concerned with energy independence and national security. Moreover, he seems to be trying to convince the reader that these assertions are an absolute truth not to be questioned, reflecting his blind faith on scientists, particularly climate scientists. However, free inquiry and lack of dogmatism are among the key features of any scientific enterprise, so his implicit assumption that scientists are infallible is completely out of place. And please, climate science has not the predictive accuracy of Newtonian physics, and particularly climate simulation models are not as precise nor reliable as he thinks, e.g. see the recently published SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance which has a controversial and politically incorrect chapter discussing the limitations of climate change predictions and proposes a more cost-effective solution.
Furthermore, though the financial and economic feasibility of the low-carbon energy options are discussed, and Gore's recognizes that particularly solar and wind have some way to go before becoming competitive, his view tends to be more romantic rather than strictly economical, as implementation of most of these technologies in the short term will require government subsidies and energy prices charge to consumers unavoidably will be higher, both in the developed and developing countries. He seems to downplay this fact and instead he just highlights the green jobs that will be created, and what about the ones lost from dirty industries?
Though this time the book avoids the sentimental touch (as he did in AIT), he could help it, as the book closes with a romantic view of the problem, describing Gore's wishful thinking and dreamed solutions being implemented, beginning with the Obama administration change of policies regarding climate change, and closing with several warm religious thoughts. Finally, though exaggeration was also avoided in this book, I could not avoid noticing the lack of realism of the Earth images in the front cover, showing a green Earth as it is today compared to a devastated Earth where climate change wrecked havoc. This artist's rendering includes four or more hurricanes twisting around North America, and a good part of the southern tip of Central America submerged. Never mind that several of the submerged Central American countries have mountain ranges with heights between 1000 to 3000 meters!
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Het is niet toevallig dat dit boek verschijnt net voor de VN-Klimaatconferentie in Kopenhagen.(07/12 tot 18/12/09 ). ISBN : 0747590982. Paperback, 326 pages. Thema: boekenplank, klimaat · Nieuwer bericht Ouder bericht Startpagina ...
http://enneemmee.blogspot.com/2009/03/nieuw-boek-in-de-maak.html
