Rating: 
Summary: An important book, not the last word, but very significant
Review: ... In my opinion (and I do possess a doctorate in biology and have experience in environmental areas) much of Dr. Lombard's analysis is pointed in the right directions. In my experience many environmentalists are very emotional and idealistic but not highly informed and don't possess much, if any, balance in their understanding of their favorite issues. In truth a few activist organizations provide much of the information that drives the activist masses. Beyond doubt Lomborg has caught these organizations in the act of producing a great deal of very sloppy research, no matter what mistakes of his own he has made in this gigantic analysis. Thus the impetus behind the hysterical trashings of his book. However sloppy their research may often be, it must be said that environmental activists are responsible for pushing much absolutely needed change and that much remains to be done which will only likely be done by their efforts. We benefit from environmental activism in tremendous ways, the Great Lakes have sizable fish populations again and the Ohio River no longer catches fire, to name just two obvious examples of the benefits of environmental activism over the years. However in order to make a reasonable future allocation of society's resources in the area of environmental protection it is very necessary to make a large-scale statistical analysis of the environment such as Dr. Lomborg's. Anybody who trusts environmentalists to provide such an analysis is very naive. The academic system of "studies" programs turns out a great deal of absolutely unbalanced pseudo analysis, any thoughtful person who has read an environmental studies textbook knows this. Unfortunately, truly junk science is very often being presented as higher education. Dr. Lombard has successfully debunked a great deal of this. Obviously some segments of the environmental community are less than grateful and fiercely resent having their beliefs examined. The book is so comprehensive that it does raise doubt as to how any person could be capable of interpreting and discussing so many different scientific areas. The book has been criticized on this point already, a criticism not easily dismissed. Dr Lombard has in truth published no papers in any of the fields he discusses. However, his expertise is in statistics, not biology or physics or such. As a statistician his analysis is generally a valid one. There is no doubt that for many complex issues the statistics do need to be interpreted by persons with specialized knowledge, knowledge not likely possessed by Lomborg. This point does not detract from the usefulness of his statistical work however. Not all the issues Dr. Lomborg treats in the book are so complex that they defy analysis by a statistical expert, which Dr Lomborg unarguably is. On the more complex issues, let the experts turn their attentions to his analysis, it will be a fruitful exercise ( If done honestly!) and our knowledge of our environment will be the better for it. However let us also scrutinize the specialists very carefully, as Lomborg has. Whether they like it or not, environmentalists will have to work with a much greater degree of honesty and accuracy in the post Skeptical Environmentalist era because many of the points in the book are dead on. Although it is a solid professional work, the book certainly is not correct in all of its aspects. There are obvious problems with applying the statistics to some environmental issues. Looking at data from a very broad view may disguise smaller-scale issues which are still tremendously important. For example even if we are losing species at much slower rate than activists claim, we are still losing species at an unacceptable rate. Moreover, losing panda bears is equivalent statistically to losing a minor species of slugs. Yet most of us would care WHICH species we are losing, Tigers and Cheetahs and Panda Bears matter more to us and say more about the changing environmental conditions than do miniscule species at the bottom of the food chain (though these species too have their passionate defenders). Lomborg seems to be on the shakiest ground when he discusses global warming due to his lack of credentials as an atmospheric scientist. How can he make a more meaningful interpretation of the possible scenarios than the experts? On the issue of global warming it is real scientists who drive the analysis, not activists. ...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read! Very comprehensive.
Review: There is sanity in the environmental movement!
Lomborg is a true environmentalist whose message is that many things are getting better but that there is still room for a lot of well thought out improvement.
He has a real problem with activists who grossly overstate their data (or who have no data and overstate anyway) in order to panic the public into action. He does a wonderful job of digging out the solid data and putting the data and consequences in perspective. He is ruthless with sloppy science!
He is especially good at balancing the costs and benefits of corrective actions. For example the trade off of large reductions in pesticide use versus the effects on costs of vegetables and fruits and the adverse consequences of these costs on diet and cancer incidence.
The only downside is that my wife is tired of me talking about what I've read. Although, I've noticed she is using Lomborg's analysis in her own conversations.
It is a thick, comprehensive book with a lot of graphs and numbers. Despite this, it is an easy read with a very logical breakdown of chapters and a summary of key points at the end of each chapter. Skipping around the book is easy. I hope this book can make it into some college classrooms. I would consider it appropriate for any environmentally interested teenager or adult.
Rating:
Summary: A statistical tour-de force!
Review: It is no wonder this book is giving my environmentalist friends fits. Lomborg, a statistician of remarkable breadth, has exhaustively surveyed the research in virtually every area of environmental concern. There are, in fact, 150 pages of footnotes and bibliography. There is a wealth of detail with hundreds of compelling charts and diagrams. Withall one need never have taken a statistics course, or even understand what statistics is, to read the book with great interest and ease. For all its academic underpinnings the style is friendly, open, and most importantly apolitical. You can astound your friends with what you will learn. There is, for example 242 TIMES as much oil in oil shale (most of it in the US and Canada) as in all conventional resources combined (oil, gas, coal). So anyone who says we are going to run out of petrochemicals in the next thousand years is blowing smoke. Lomborg's analysis in other areas is equally revealing. The conclusion is inescapable. Most of the environmental hoopla of the last three decades is aesthetics, or possibly religion, masquerading as science. Lomborg strips off the mask. If you have ever wondered what is really going on... this is the book for you!!
Rating:
Summary: Systematically and prominent and above all real
Review: This text challenges widely held beliefs that the environmental situation is getting worse and worse. The author, himself a former member of Greenpeace, is critical of the way in which many environmental organizations make selective and misleading use of the scientific evidence. Using the best available statistical information from internationally recognized research institutes, Bjorn Lomborg systematically examines a range of major environmental problems that feature prominently in headline news across the world. His arguments are presented in nontechnical, accessible language and are carefully backed up by over 2500 footnotes allowing readers to check sources for themselves. Concluding that there are more reasons for optimism than pessimism, Bjorn Lomborg stresses the need for clear-headed prioritization of resources to tackle real, not imagined problems. "The Skeptical Environmentalist" offers readers a non-partisan stocktaking exercise that serves as a useful corrective to the more alarmist accounts favoured by campaign groups and the media.
Rating:
Summary: Long overdue expose'
Review: Romanticism has, for two centuries, shown contempt for civilization and industry, worshipped nature, and has expressed generally pessimistic views of society. Modern environmentalists are only the most recent expression of recycled romanticism. Mr. Lomborg, who revealed that he was once a member of Greenpeace and remains a member of the Left, shared environmental delusions, but thank Goddess he had a fine mind and a conscience. After years of careful research with his statistics students, he exposed the Litany of Lies propounded by radical, romantic environmentalists. If you, like me, are weary of the drumbeat of negativity from the environmental fringe, read this book and feel hopeful that life is good and getting better for most of the people on this planet.
Rating: 
Summary: Need for a Reality Check
Review: I have been a professional environmental consultant for nearly 25 years and served many US agencies and private concerns. Its about time we question many of the myths about environmentalism and contradictions of environmentalists (though I believe the overall need for protection is there). However, I do not necessarily think Mr. Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist always does this judicially. Contrary to other reviews you read here, this is not about left and right. (The more one makes this a polarizing political discussion, the more it will never be a honest examination.) It is about slugging it through detailed analyses of facts and near-facts. It is about arriving at the truth, as much as can be done. Here is where Lomborg goes halfway. In some circumstances, he has selectively analyzed topics to arrive at a conclusion that convieniently provides a more consistent overarching summary for his book - that things are A-OK. Specifically, he does this on the topics of population, energy, habitat depletion, species elimination, and global warming. These are a few too many mishandled topics to give him high marks for his efforts. I think Lomborg commits the same crime he accuses others of; that is of jumping to conclusions, not seeing the complete picture and wanting to package a conclusion that is nearly impossible to neatly package. Mr. Lomborg does bravely raise some very important issues and ideas. For this I applaud him and for this reason I recommend this book. There is a great need to be honest about ourselves in environmental policy. For too long, policy has been driven by the perception of doing good, excessive chemophobia, and too much of "its someone else's responsibility" (never the individual citizen and their lifestyle but more likely that of industry). The resultant policy is also often cumbersome and micro-managed approach that is implemented long after a sensible, sometimes more creative approach should have been initiated. I hope that this book encourages an honest self-examination by its readers.
Rating:
Summary: Facts Not Fiction/Look at the numbers and long term trends
Review: Despite all the latest attacks on Lomborg and his recent publication I have found the opposite to be true after reading this book. It is very enlightening to actually see global comparisons and trends that were formerly just assumptions and manytimes made-up by organizations. I commend Lomborg for setting out to make such a bold statement. Though, I do not exactly agree with every detail, I feel that his state of the world is the closest to the truth. After being in academia studying environmental issues about 6 years ago, his book answers and clarifies many questions and misconceptions that I had. Regardless of what critics say I highly suggest reading this book because, it will help cut through many of the assumptions, lies, and bad information we have seen in the past. This book helps us get down to the root of the issue. Because the environment is such an emotional and almost moral issue with people let yourself be the critic and remember look at facts, not emotional opinions.
Rating:
Summary: Truth Will Out
Review: Mr. Lomborg, a Danish professor and Greenpeace member, started his project with his students to disprove conservative complaints about the environmental movement. To his surprise he discovered and proves in this book(almost half of which is devoted to footnotes and sources) the conservatives complaints are largely true. He not only makes a case for the improving environment he gives example after example of lies by prominent environmental movement leaders and cites you to charts and accepted studies that disprove them. This is a must read book for anyone serious about the environment. It is a more significant environmental work than "The Silent Spring" and it's based on fact not emotion.
Rating:
Summary: Overdue Sanity in the Environmental Debate
Review: The Birkenstock wearing crowd should get nervous. It's time to buy some nice shoes and forego the toe cheese exhibition.
Finally a book - and one written by an environmentalist - that expose the hype that sorrounds important environmenatl problems and exposes those environmentalists who dedicate themselves to generating panic and concealing the truth. It seems the only opinion people are allowed to entertain about the world is that the world is on a fast road to disaster. This gloomy prediction is sheepishly pronounced all over the planet in all media. Voices of sanity are silenced. The author is (or was) a card carrying member of Geenpeace - is generally a 'leftist'- and he sets out to evaluate the world's leading environmental pressure groups and the evidence they provide. In the process he finds that the evidence is falsified and skewed to support the gloomy view and that scientific evidence, in fact, suggests that on all or most indicators the world has improved in the last decades. The evidence is well examined and documented. he finds fault with the Kyoto agreement and entertains serious doubts about global warming and de-forestation statistics (Lomborg should know as a professor of statistics).
Rating:
Summary: Most Important Book of 21st Century
Review: Thoroughly researched and extremely well documented, this is the book that will refocus the entire environmental debate. Because it is so meticulously written, it is a slow read. You will want to have a highlight marker in hand as you read the book; important ideas and facts will need to be revisited after the book has been read and they can best be found when they have been underlined.
If you have often wondered whether the terrifying environmental forecasts reported in the media are true, this book is a must read. It will bring the litany of negative messages from the environmental community into focus; in short, the environment that is reported in the media is not the true state of the world. The world is in a lot better shape than the environmentalists would have people believe.
This book is important because it will help people understand that following the doom sayers and throwing money away at phantom problems will do our country and the rest of the world a great disservice. The section of the book covering global warming is, by itself, an important ground breaking work. It demonstrates conclusively that the Kyoto protocol (treaty) is a disaster and that it should never be ratified.
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