Rating: 
Summary: He must be right
Review: Whenever a book that presents a factual thesis isn't answered, but rather is ignored, or dismissed with ad hominem attacks, you can be sure that the author is correct and his critics have no comeback. That is the case with this extremely important book-in my view, the most imortant book published in 2001.
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Summary: Skepticism About Lomborg, Concern For Our Children
Review: Bjorn Lomborg has written a book to try to calm the worry of the masses. In so doing, he has given all of us something to truly worry about: the possibility that many will believe what he has said. The principal thesis of The Skeptical Environmentalist is that there is no environmental crisis, and that money can be better spent combatting poverty, hunger, and other social ills. It would be wonderful were he telling the truth, and it is tragic that he is not. As a biologist, I have never seen a more dangerous piece of scientific journalism- if I may so distinguish it. For Lomborg is not merely misguided, he is deliberately and knowingly misguiding others. In all the religions that I have ever studied, this is a sin.Lomborg's book is presented as a scholarly treatise, replete with references and citations. Lomborg depicts himself as one who was once sympathetic to the notion that the earth is in trouble due to human shortsightedness, but now has seen the light. Yet in every single area where I, as a reader, have expertise, Lomborg is pitifully wrong. Lomborg says that the problem of species exinction has been greatly over-rated and that scientists have no real idea how fast species are going extinct. This is actually a lie. The truth is that an accurate estimate for rates of extinction over the world as a whole are difficult to verify. In any one place, however, it is easy to see what is happening, and there are reams of data to indicate that we ought be acting to reverse the loss of species, mostly out of our own immediate self interest. I work in East Africa, where hundreds of fish species, including several important food fishes, have come perilously close to extinction, and about half of them have not been seen at all for many years. In my study area on Stellwagen Bank off Cape Cod Bay, the fishery is hurting badly, and the world's most endangered large whale, the Atlantic right whale, gets closer to extinction every day. There are so many other examples- things I have seen with my own eyes, and helped with to collect the basic data that Lomborg so eloquently and humorously misquotes. What Lomborg is saying about biodiversity loss simply does not wash with reality. Then there is global warming, which Lomborg seems to feel is a relatively minor change, and a good one for northern folks like him who have trouble enough with cold winters. Let us see what Lomborg would have to say if we forced him to live on the edge of the Sahara Desert, or in Bangladesh, or to become a farmer in the heart of drought-stricken regions of the US, Africa, or Australia.
Remember that the International Panel on Climate Change, a well-balanced group of scientists from all over the world, have warned all nations that the problem is real. President Bush didn't like that answer, so he called for a second review of the problem, his own, and the answer came back even more strongly that the US had better do something about global warming or risk serious consequences! Tropical reef corals all around the world's warm seas have been dying in droves due to lethally high sea surface temperatures- or is this also a figment of our fertile imaginations? Air and water pollution are exagerated problems, too, in Lomborg's book. Try telling that to the relatives of folks who choke to death on putrid air or die from cholera and arsenic-tinged water every day. The truth of the matter is that while Lomborg grows fat on customers to his complacency, the rest of the world's people know damn well what's going on, and are working their butts off to fix it. THAT is the reason why air quality has improved in the past few decades in many of our big cities. THAT is the reason why famous rivers like the Thames and the Hudson have moved from open sewers back toward something tolerable and liveable. THAT is what will save the starving, sickly masses in the developing world. The Skeptical Environmentalist is a balm for do-nothings and ostriches with their heads in the sand (something that real ostriches are not foolish enough to do). The rest of us who love life and share hope and a can-do attitude are better off using Lomborg's book as a doorstop. Bjorn Lomborg is a young man with a long life ahead of him. See how quickly he changes his tune when his followers discover his nakedness. Pity him, but for heaven's sake, don't support him by purchasing this book. I and so many others have already made the mistake of buying it, so if you want to read it there are already plenty of copies around to borrow. When you are done, and the wiser for it, resist the temptation to burn it and instead pass it on to your worst enemies. Meanwhile, I can have only pity for my Danish colleagues who must now deal with Lomborg as head of a national institute for the environment. We live in such a strange, strange world.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing candor, clear language, eye-opening truth
Review: A must-read for those interested in environmental issues. And for parents who generally have the "Earth Day" nonsense fed to them by well-meaning teachers eager to teach "compassion for the earth." The conclusion builds as you read, and you realize you already KNEW this. Of course! Human's are using science to understand more, do more with less, and handle waste more effectively. The "environmental" argument of resource-depletion and "man's dirty footprint on the earth" is an uneducated and reactionary one. It is wrong-headed, and the evidence is all about us. Follow some of the sources, read some of the citations and we learn that there are more forests now than when the Indians were here. There are healthier rivers and lakes (pine trees are acidifying) as we planted more hardwoods. There is no danger of running out of landfill. One becomes excited to learn that, as you knew in your heart, that the silly movie stars and vapid "anchor-people" are misinformed and spouting nonsense to get you to keep watching and adoring them. Not to be mindful, intelligent free men and women. The truth is like that.
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Summary: A Must Read
Review: When I read some of the harsh and the scornful criticisms of Lomborg's "The Skeptical Environmentalist," I knew that his work was important. I rushed to order the book and I haven't been disappointed. I would highly recommend it. It exposes a myriad of highly questionable ideas, lavished in the framework of 'statistical science,' as essentially, incoherent. The 'environmentalist movement' which finds its breeding ground within the comfort zone of this hyped-up 'science,' has evolved into a slick cadre of lobbyists and lawyers, who are responsible for the enormous hidden tax on American products and services [money]in 2000). This movement makes false and dishonest statements, ignores contradictory evidence and is deliberately alarmist. It represents an attempt to manipulate public opinion by exploiting fear and ignorance. Lomborg (who is a former member of this movement) has written an excellent response to the environmentalist hype. This book is a must read!
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Summary: Good for a Laugh
Review: I decided I had better give this book a read after hearing all the buzz about it. I am convinced Bjorn Lomborg and Rush Limbaugh Must have gone to the same school of scientific obfuscation and unctuous disinformation. A middle school debate class could take this book apart with little effort. It proves a good case study for how to make a million pandering to eager (desperate) skeptics but for real "facts" look elsewhere. Even if you are skeptical of environmental science you can do a WHOLE lot better than this book. Now if you want a book that REALLY throws some light on the environmental debate over history look to "Ruin and Recovery" by Dave Dempsey. What I found so remarkable about his book was how anti conservationists and anti environmentalists have been making the same arguments for 200 years and how THEIR predictions not only prove untrue but often completely contrary.
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Summary: but you don't have to take my word for it
Review: anyone interested in reading this book, or better yet, anyone who has read this book, should read the ongoing review that Scientific American magazine has done on it. ...BR>In its January 2002 issue, Scientific American gave some real experts on the environment 11 pages to critique Lomborg's work, and their accusations are startling. From taking quotations out of context, to citing outdated sources, to only presenting one side of a hotly debated issue, "The Skeptical Environmentalist" leaves readers with good reason to remain skeptical. Might be of use to math and social science teachers as an interesting case study in the ways professional-looking statistics can be used to mislead the public.
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Summary: Misleading and dangerous
Review: A non-scientist writes a book with no peer review, and comes to indefensible and essentially reactionary, unsupportable conclusions, probably in the service of an ideological agenda. His conclusions -- that the major environmental problems of today, from global warming to fisheries depletion to species loss, and on and on, are not really problems at all -- are contradicted by most all responsible scientists. Unfortunately this book has made a big splash, and does little other than misinform and obfuscate the real issues.
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Summary: the skeptical environmentalist made me skeptical...
Review: After reading this book, It has more or less proven beyond a shadow of a doubt what I ... had thought for a long time. Mr. Lomborg's analysis of what has been going on is right on the money. A book so powerful - you knew the environmentalist's would be fuming mad. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Talking points memo.
Review: It is evident from the review by the reader below that he or she has gotten a copy of the talking points handed out by environmentalist organizations to try to smear Lomborg. Not even bothering to paraphrase this list, the reviewer simply presents it to us verbatim, while providing nothing in the way of evidence to back up the statements. The fact is that ideological environmentalists like this one are running into a wall. The simple truth is that their dire predictions are failing utterly to come true. Lomborg does a fabulous job of exposing the dichotomy between environmentalist rhetoric and the actual state of the world. I recommend the book highly.
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Summary: The Environmental Doomsayers Hath No Clothes!
Review: Those of us who care about the environment are thankful for Lomborg's book. It is a Herculean effort to compile and analyze this immense amount of data on so many fields to give us a rather dispassionate, but certainly much-closer-to-the-truth view on many environmental issues. In the beginning of the book, Lomborg skillfully explained why most people believe that the environment is in bad shape by pointing out some interesting statistics: most people believe that their own immediate sphere, a town or village, is in better shape environmentally than his country, and that his country is in better shape environmentally than the world at large. (And similarly over 70% of drivers rate themselves as above-average drivers!) So, the "environment is in bad shape" is not a personal experience, but has been communicated to them. Lomborg than correctly pointed out that incentive structure for the career environmental scientist/activist tilt them to communicate bad, or even alarmist, scenarios. Basically, it is money (donations and government grants) and livelihood (career and fame.) Similarly, the media is incented to communicate "news" that attracts a large viewership - the only real news is bad news. . Lomborg's method is quite straightforward: present a "received wisdom" of some claim of crisis, provide some explanatory material and put the issue in context, then expose the claim as either having no data or evidence to back it up, or is soundly contradicted by subsequent, more authoritative data, or its prediction wildly off the mark. This book documents how the "Silent Spring" never came to pass, "Our Stolen Future" is actually quite secure, the "40,000 species loss per year" is utter fantasy, the "50% drop of the human sperm count" is not to diminish our manhood. And there are many more... I do not come away thinking that everything is rosy - it is not the message of this book. Even though Lomborg does not have any startling new discovery to share, I certainly feel that his work is most valuable, and he is much more objective and credible than Paul Ehrlich, Lester Brown and other luminaries who have made a career of making outrageous (and wrong) predictions of environmental disasters year after year. Lomborg's point is not that there are no environmental issues, or that none of the environmental regulations has done any good. He merely points out that if we use scientific methods (rather than faith) and make claims responsibly (rather than based on self-interest), the populace will have a better understanding of the true state of the environment, and resources can be directed to the areas that are truly a source of concern. But of course that might well mean that less governmental money, and less environmental research jobs. Lomborg did not make many friends of the environmental stripe by publishing this book....
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