Rating: 
Summary: Sometimes you have to wonder about the Right
Review: Even if publications like this are not written by millionaires, surely that's the audience they intend to reach. I can't blame the conservative public for wanting a rebuttal to assertions on issues such as environmentalism, civil liberties, racism, etc. that leftists might seem to have monopolized in the public consciousness. No position should go unchallenged as incontrovertible fact, especially not if the proof is so difficult to ascertain, as it is with global warming. In reading books like this and Facts Not Fear: Teaching Children About the Environment, you get the feeling that conservative types see today's environmentalist establishment as some unpleasant amalgam of mamby-pamby peaceniks and humorless grown-up hall monitor killjoys who arbitrarily claimed authoritatively to know what is best for the planet. From the former's standpoint, all that was thought to be good and wholesome not so long ago (like red meat, driving, farming) has since been villified. What is a red-blooded American to do? What makes books like these disappointing is the low road they seem to prefer. Not all environmentalists strive to kill the dreaded multinationals, spike trees and take away your driving privileges. Those that do tend to inflate figures and resort to scare tactics, but aren't likely to appeal to the better educated public. If it is necessary to inform the public that there is an alternate school of thought on ecology, the best way to present it is probably not to suggest that we are all living well, so let's just ignore the fact that 3 of the 10 most polluted locales in the world belong to the US. It seems that when the Right finally does get the microphone to present commentary on the state of the environment, instead of articulating, it chooses to play armpit noises. It might play to more of the audience, but only because it takes the seriousness out of an issue that the angry or insipid masses don't want to be bothered with. At least not until an environmental disaster hits them personally. Academia probably won't have much use for Simon's work in this lifetime, but it doubtlessly has, and will have, an audience. If his purpose was just to preach to the choir, he succeeds, but it's not likely to reach beyond. It's disappointing, though, that this type of perspective represents so much money, yet all these resources cannot buy more informed, or at least persuasive authors.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes you have to wonder about the Right
Review: Even if publications like this are not written by millionaires, surely that's the audience they intend to reach. I can't blame the conservative public for wanting a rebuttal to assertions on issues such as environmentalism, civil liberties, racism, etc. that leftists might seem to have monopolized in the public consciousness. No position should go unchallenged as incontrovertible fact, especially not if the proof is so difficult to ascertain, as it is with global warming. In reading books like this and Facts Not Fear: Teaching Children About the Environment, you get the feeling that conservative types see today's environmentalist establishment as some unpleasant amalgam of mamby-pamby peaceniks and humorless grown-up hall monitor killjoys who arbitrarily claimed authoritatively to know what is best for the planet. From the former's standpoint, all that was thought to be good and wholesome not so long ago (like red meat, driving, farming) has since been villified. What is a red-blooded American to do? What makes books like these disappointing is the low road they seem to prefer. Not all environmentalists strive to kill the dreaded multinationals, spike trees and take away your driving privileges. Those that do tend to inflate figures and resort to scare tactics, but aren't likely to appeal to the better educated public. If it is necessary to inform the public that there is an alternate school of thought on ecology, the best way to present it is probably not to suggest that we are all living well, so let's just ignore the fact that 3 of the 10 most polluted locales in the world belong to the US. It seems that when the Right finally does get the microphone to present commentary on the state of the environment, instead of articulating, it chooses to play armpit noises. It might play to more of the audience, but only because it takes the seriousness out of an issue that the angry or insipid masses don't want to be bothered with. At least not until an environmental disaster hits them personally. Academia probably won't have much use for Simon's work in this lifetime, but it doubtlessly has, and will have, an audience. If his purpose was just to preach to the choir, he succeeds, but it's not likely to reach beyond. It's disappointing, though, that this type of perspective represents so much money, yet all these resources cannot buy more informed, or at least persuasive authors.
Rating: 
Summary: Counteract the effects of Eco-Terrorists
Review: For ten years I (a physicist) have been reading both scientific and political news about global warming. This has led to strong feelings of frustration in trying to answer the question: "Why is the global warming steamroller so overwhelming?" Julian Simon provides the answer - not a very encouraging one, but his explanation of the causes of the hoodwinking could form the basis for fixing what is wrong with the way we form opinions. I am not confident that we could ever develop his suggested "Truth Lobby," but the idea is intriguing. My reading of a library copy of this book has motivated me toward buying the book for presentation to the president of our local college. I would do so in the hope that reading it would help her understand the hoodwinking that is happening under her nose in the college's "Environmental Studies" program (part of the college's Department of Politics). Simon exhibits admirable restraint where I might have resorted to ridicule. I think that he didn't go far enough in identifying vested interests in people with impeccable motives (e.g., "Saving the Earth"). Now, if we can just convince Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio, Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Dan Rather and Bill Clinton that they don't know jake about climate science ... . This is an important, scholarly book with importance outside the area of environmental activism.
Rating:
Summary: Antidote to Dumbing Down
Review: For ten years I (a physicist) have been reading both scientific and political news about global warming. This has led to strong feelings of frustration in trying to answer the question: "Why is the global warming steamroller so overwhelming?" Julian Simon provides the answer - not a very encouraging one, but his explanation of the causes of the hoodwinking could form the basis for fixing what is wrong with the way we form opinions. I am not confident that we could ever develop his suggested "Truth Lobby," but the idea is intriguing. My reading of a library copy of this book has motivated me toward buying the book for presentation to the president of our local college. I would do so in the hope that reading it would help her understand the hoodwinking that is happening under her nose in the college's "Environmental Studies" program (part of the college's Department of Politics). Simon exhibits admirable restraint where I might have resorted to ridicule. I think that he didn't go far enough in identifying vested interests in people with impeccable motives (e.g., "Saving the Earth"). Now, if we can just convince Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio, Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Dan Rather and Bill Clinton that they don't know jake about climate science ... . This is an important, scholarly book with importance outside the area of environmental activism.
Rating: 
Summary: Recycled Simon
Review: I was somewhat disappointed with this book because it turned out to be a heavily abridged version of The Ultimate Resource 2, which is a great book. Nevertheless, for someone who wants an introduction to Julian Simon's writings, Hoodwinking The Nation will admirably serve the purpose. If you like it, then I highly recommend The Ultimate Resource 2, which is about 4 times the length and contains lots of charts and graphs. But if you have already read The Ultimate Resource 2, you will not need this book.
Rating:
Summary: Recycled Simon
Review: I was somewhat disappointed with this book because it turned out to be a heavily abridged version of The Ultimate Resource 2, which is a great book. Nevertheless, for someone who wants an introduction to Julian Simon's writings, Hoodwinking The Nation will admirably serve the purpose. If you like it, then I highly recommend The Ultimate Resource 2, which is about 4 times the length and contains lots of charts and graphs. But if you have already read The Ultimate Resource 2, you will not need this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good read for ostriches
Review: If you want to believe that there are no serious environmental problems on this planet, this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended!
Review: In this fascinating book, American author and economist Julian L. Simon (1932-98) looks at a perplexing phenomenon - as things get demonstrably better, polls show that people perceive things to be getting markedly worse! Beginning with the "vanishing farmland" crisis, the Dr. Simon analyzes various environmental crises, and uses reliable statistics to show how the situations have been distorted by the press and various vested interests (usually environmental groups and U.S. governmental agencies). Indeed, all too often data which show improving situations are massaged so that they are actually presented as bad news. Along the way, the author spears many sacred cows, and shows how the public has been hoodwinked into fearing a future bright with potential. I must admit that I tripped across the book quite by accident, and I am quite happy that I did. Dr. Simon is a welcome ray of light on a subject kept dark and murky. If you want to get a view on how the public can be (and often is) misled on environmental issues, then you would do well to read this book. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Counteract the effects of Eco-Terrorists
Review: It should be quite obvious to anyone with any real background in natural science, math, or perhaps just good old, non-hysterical common sense, that the earth isn't coming to an end. This book completely refutes the reasoning of the 1990s trend of screaming at "big business" for "destroying the planet". Face it folks, just 'cause Al Gore claims it's true, doesn't make it so. Global warming...Am I the only one who remembers the mid-1970s panic over "global cooling"? Back then, we were all going to die in a new ice age. People need to be scared about something new every 25 years or so. It seems to give them an excuse for their righteous rage, when all they really need is a couple of Prozac.
Rating:
Summary: Are t-stars out tonite I don't know if it's cloudy or bright
Review: Simon does his usual thing in this book as he debunks the bunked-up balderdash of the blinkered. His "Ultimate Resource" book, his book on "the State of Humanity" and his posthumous offering, "It's Getting Better All the Time" with Stephan Moore, all converge with the theme of exposing the political agenda under which the progressive Left operates as they disguise their true motives while waving their banner of concern for the environment. The recent publication by Bjorn Lomborg, "the Skeptical Environmentalist", just adds more fuel to Simon's fire. Lomborg has impeccable Leftist credentials as a former member of Greenpeace who also works as a professor in the political science department of a Danish University. He's just that oddity of oddities, an honest Leftist intellectual. Lomborg set out to prove Simon wrong, but found him to be...drumroll...., to in fact, be right. Lomborg's shock parallels Ron Radosh's experience in setting out to prove the Rosenbergs innocent, but in fact finding that they were guilty. Both men have received scorn at the hands of the Far Left. They are made to be an un-person in true Stalinist style as they suffer the dispersement of disinformation at the hands of their former comrades. The rabbit is out of the hat, as Simon has always known, it's a political agenda that fuels almost all the environmental scare tactics of the Left and in no way does their agenda resemble a search for the truth. Simon and Lomborg both used statistics and science, freely available in the public domain, leading Lomborg to question why so many environmental myths are so truculently lodged in the minds of the public? Just as Simon talks about the need for a "Truth Lobby" Lomborg was amazed at the closed minded religiosity of his friends who refused to believe, nor had an interest in discussing, his research findings. It is this compartmentalized-brain-syndrome that has consigned Simon's works to the dustbins of bookstores who continue to extol the virtues of always wrong, but presumably well intentioned, environmentalists such as Paul Erhlich of Stanford. If we are fortunate enough to have a collective national awakening it will probably be because Simon's work, like Bach's music, will have been discovered at some later date in a more rational time in some collectors trunk in an attic, deep in the heart of the land of the fruits and the nuts.
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