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The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 530 ratings

The Skeptical Environmentalist 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 organisations make selective and misleading use of the scientific evidence. Using the best available statistical information from internationally recognised research institutes, Bjørn Lomborg systematically examines a range of major environmental problems that feature prominently in headline news across the world. His arguments are presented in non-technical, 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, Bjørn Lomborg stresses the need for clear-headed prioritisation 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"… a superbly documented and readable book."
The Wall Street Journal

"The Skeptical Environmentalist should be read by every environmentalist, so that the appalling errors of fact the environmental movement has made in the past are not repeated. A brilliant and powerful book."
Matt Ridley, author of Genome

"Lomborg pulls off the remarkable feat of welding the techno-optimism of the Internet age with a lefty's concern for the fate of the planet."
Rolling Stone

"Bjørn Lomborg is an outstanding representative of the 'new breed' of political scientists - mathematically-skilled and computer-adept. In this book he shows himself also to be a hardheaded, empirically oriented analyst. Surveying a vast amount of data and taking account of a wide range of more and less informed opinion about environmental threats facing the planet, he comes to a balanced assessment of which ones are real and which are over-hyped. In vigorous and what needs not to be done about those turning out to be pseudo-problems."
Jack Hirshleifer, University of California, Los Angeles

"Bjørn Lomborg raises the important question whether the costs of remedying the damage caused by environmental pollution are higher than the costs of the pollution itself. The answer is by no means straightforward. He has written a pioneering book."
Richard Rosecrance, University of California, Los Angeles

"… probably the most important book on the environment ever written."
booksonline

"This is one of the most valuable books on public policy - not merely on environmental policy - to have been written for the intelligent general reader in the past ten years. The Skeptical Environmentalist is a triumph."
The Economist

"When Lomborg concludes that 'the loss of the world's rainforests, of fertile agricultural land, the ozone layer and of the climate balance are terrible' I agree. But we also need debate, and this book provides us with that in generous amounts, incl 2428 footnotes. If you, like I do, belong to the people who dare to think the world is making some progress, but always with mistakes to be corrected, this book makes important reading."
Lars Kristoferson, Secretary General, WWF Sweden

"… it is a surprise to meet someone who calls himself an environmentalist but who asserts that things are getting better … Strange to say, the author of this happy thesis is not a steely-eyed economist at a conservative Washington think tank but a vegetarian, backpack-toting academic who was a member of Greenpeace for four years … The primary target of the books, a substantial work of analysis with almost 3000 footnotes, are statements made by environemtal organizations like the Worldwatch Institute, the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace. He refers to the persistently gloomy fate from these groups as the Litany, a collection of statements that he argues are exaggerations or outright myths."
The New York Times

"Lomborg is right on his points, that his critique of much green activism and its reporting in the media is just, and, above all, that where there is room for disagreement, Mr Lomborg invites and facilitates discussion, rather than seeking to silence it."
The Economist

About the Author

Bjørn Lomborg is an Associate Professor of Statistics in the Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark. He has published in international journals in the fields of game theory and computer simulations. He has given invited lectures on the subjects discussed in The Skeptical Environmentalist in leading universities in North America and Europe following the success of the original Danish edition which has had a significant impact on the terms of the environmental debate within Scandinavia.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00AKE1PRS
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (August 30, 2001)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 30, 2001
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 5842 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Up to 4 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 542 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 530 ratings

About the author

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Bjørn Lomborg
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Dr. Bjorn Lomborg is an academic and the author of the best-selling "The Skeptical Environmentalist" and "Cool It". He challenges mainstream concerns about development and the environment and points out that we need to focus our limited resources and attention on the smartest solutions first. He is a visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School, and president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center which brings together top economists, including seven Nobel Laureates, to set data-driven priorities for the world.

Follow him on twitter: bjornlomborg

Lomborg is a frequent commentator in print and broadcast media, for outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, CNN, FOX, and the BBC. His monthly column is published in 19 languages, in 30+ newspapers with more than 30 million readers globally.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
530 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book well-researched and straightforward. They find it interesting and worth reading. The writing style is clear and easy to understand, with graphs and long time periods to show environmental change. Readers appreciate the objective and clear perspective on a subject full of disinformation. The book focuses on long-term trends like life expectancy, food availability, energy availability, and climate change. However, some customers feel the book contains factual mistakes and that the statistics cannot support every argument.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

55 customers mention "Research quality"55 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's research quality. They find it carefully researched and argued, with a straightforward examination of facts and rhetoric. The book provides great information and a well-needed reality check against scare tactics used by politicians. It allows further analysis with tables that allow an informed person to come to their own conclusions. Readers appreciate the clear statistics, excellent references, and evidence supporting the thesis.

"...Lomborg describes all of this very transparantly, uses clear statistics, uses excellent references and argues very logically, intelligently and..." Read more

"...The book contains 173 figures, mostly graphs, nearly 3000 references, and thousands of interesting facts...." Read more

"...(if a bit repetitive on occasion), with a refreshingly straightforward examination of facts and rhetoric surrounding much of the environmental debate..." Read more

"This book is a well needed reality check to the scare tactics used by politicians, profit seekers and incompetent extremists in order to exert..." Read more

39 customers mention "Readability"39 positive0 negative

Customers find the book interesting and well-documented. They say it's worth reading, compelling, and impressive. The first chapter makes a valid point about being skeptical.

"...Lomborg describes all of this very transparantly, uses clear statistics, uses excellent references and argues very logically, intelligently and..." Read more

"...This book is one of the most important and interesting books I have ever read...." Read more

"...But the war being waged against it alone makes it worth looking into. If only to find out what Lombard's opponents are so afraid of." Read more

"...The book is highly recommended. It's a thorough investigation into the all of humanities greatest concerns, and a highly usable reference...." Read more

16 customers mention "Writing style"12 positive4 negative

Customers find the book well-written and easy to understand. They appreciate the clear graphs and time periods used to show environmental change. The book is organized and accessible for readers with basic knowledge.

"In a nutshell, I found this book to be eminently readable (if a bit repetitive on occasion), with a refreshingly straightforward examination of..." Read more

"...In terms of readability, this book is very accessible for those with a basic familiarity with data analysis; probably nothing more than an..." Read more

"...understand what statistics is, to read the book with great interest and ease...." Read more

"...This book is (correctly) complicated and difficult to summarize well, but it has the sort of analysis and backup we need...." Read more

15 customers mention "Objectiveness"11 positive4 negative

Customers find the book objective and helpful. It provides a clear perspective on a subject full of disinformation. Readers appreciate the clear-headed optimism and the fact-based analysis. The book is described as an important, interesting read that cuts through the hype and gets to the facts.

"...This is very important to remember. The book contains 173 figures, mostly graphs, nearly 3000 references, and thousands of interesting facts...." Read more

"...It is easy to have good goals, like "good environment and quality of life", but the real issue is balancing priorities dynamically as the real..." Read more

"Environmentalists of all stripes should welcome this important work, which irrefutably and thoroughly debunks most of the currently popular myths..." Read more

"Great information but the delivery is a bit too dry and conclusionary info is hard to compile...." Read more

6 customers mention "Health"6 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's health content. They find it informative, covering topics like life expectancy, food availability, energy availability, and quality of life. The book also helps readers understand long-term trends and issues like flu, acne, and cancer.

"...3. Our lives and health have improved dramatically over the past couple of hundred years due to better standards of living, better hygiene and water..." Read more

"...It is easy to have good goals, like "good environment and quality of life", but the real issue is balancing priorities dynamically as the real..." Read more

"...and observations regarding environmental issues, and focuses on long-term trends...." Read more

"...This book thoroughly investigates trends of life expectancy, food availability, energy availability, global warming, depletion of forests, depletion..." Read more

6 customers mention "Visual appeal"6 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's visual appeal. They find the presentation of data thoughtful, thorough, and concise.

"...uses excellent references and argues very logically, intelligently and subtly...." Read more

"...He clearly and concisely illustrates how even supposed top "scientists" pervert the data to their own ends or are simply idiots...." Read more

"...Lomborg's presentation is engaging and the book is visually attractive...." Read more

"...For all its academic underpinnings the style is friendly, open, and most importantly apolitical...." Read more

4 customers mention "Climate change"4 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's climate change discussion. They say it accepts global warming as a fact and provides an analysis of the real state of climate change and world problems.

"...He even accepts that global warming is a fact (it is, in fact, a viable theory despite some contradictory evidence)...." Read more

"...trends of life expectancy, food availability, energy availability, global warming, depletion of forests, depletion of natural water and the like...." Read more

"This is a very rational and reasonable analysis of global warming and our reactions to it, and of the many doomsday forecasts we have received about..." Read more

"...true facts and figures about the reality of the world, poverty and global warming. So appreciated." Read more

6 customers mention "Accuracy"0 positive6 negative

Customers find the book contains some factual mistakes and dishonesty. They mention that the statistics can't support every argument, but that's the point.

"...I am sorry to say this but the critique in Scientific American was misleading, off target, strong worded, and ridiculous...." Read more

"...great achievement, since environmental hype is so widespread and patently erroneous...." Read more

"...reason is that the book is one-sided and contains some (a lot of) factual mistakes. My oh my...." Read more

"...humans. A major weakness of this book is that statistics can't support every argument...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2006
    I was introduced to "The Skeptical Environmentalist" and Bjorn Lomborg by Scientific American. I am a decade long reader of Scientific American, and I still enjoy reading Scientific American. It took me a few years before I decided to read this book. It is a thick book and I was afraid it would be biased. However, I was positively surprised once I read it. This book is one of the most important and interesting books I have ever read. After reading this book I went back and read the critique of the book in Scientific American. I am sorry to say this but the critique in Scientific American was misleading, off target, strong worded, and ridiculous. The critique had nothing to do with Science; it was just a few offended Professors mouthing off. If you read the book carefully, check some of the facts for your self, and then read the critique in Scientific American Bjorn Lomborg will end up looking like the Galileo of our time, or maybe a Giordano Bruno. Many of the claims you will see in the negative reviews below are simply false and many highly exaggerated. Some negative reviewers, however, admit they did not read the book.

    Regarding his chapter on Global Warming. Contrary to what some reviewers and critics claim, Bjorn Lomborg does not deny the existence of Global Warming. Neither does he state that it is not partially human induced. However, he puts the effects of Global Warming in perspective and corrects many alarmist myths regarding this subject. He also statistically analyzes the effects of the Kyoto protocol and finds that it is a flawed protocol that does much more harm than good.

    Why the book is so important is because the public has been made to believe so much outrageous nonsense with regards to the economy, health, resources, environment, and the state of the world. It is primarily the media and environmental activists that are responsible for this misinformation. However, environmental scientists have not been very eager to correct misconceptions that result in more grants for them. This book is a "just the facts mam" book, and many (I believe the vast majority) of the facts that will surprise you are also agreed on by the very experts that are critical of this book. This is very important to remember. The book contains 173 figures, mostly graphs, nearly 3000 references, and thousands of interesting facts. Some of the claims in the book are under dispute, but for the average reader this is not of great concern. You have been bamboozled and Bjorn Lomborg will set you almost entirely straight.

    One great service the book does to the average reader is that it makes you aware of how statistics can be used to manipulate you (this was not a surprise to me). For example, a claim that more people are dying of cancer does not mean that there is a cancer epidemic. Cancer is an old age disease, and we are living longer but the overall mortality rate is still 100%(duh), so that a higher percent is dying from cancer is not strange. You have to adjust the cancer rate and mortality rates for age to see if it has become worse (and it hasn't). Watch out for statistics in the media. Lomborgs analysis of GM food scares/hoaxes was exceptionally interesting.

    And finally, here are a few interesting facts selected by me.

    >> In 1970 35% of all people in the developing world were starving. In 1996 the figure was 18% and the UN expects that the figure will have fallen to 12% by 2010.

    >> The life expectancy in the whole world in 1900 was still around 30. In 1998 it was 65 in the developing world.

    >> Water scarcity is a local and logistic problem, not a global resource problem.

    >> So2 pollution in London in the mid 1800 was around 40 times higher than it is now. Also economic development leads naturally to less pollution (not the the other way around), except for the very beginning.

    >> The price of the vast majority of the important minerals and metals keep going down, and the reserves up (we find more, or extract more efficiently).

    >> The worlds known conventional oil reserves has gone up (not down) because we keep finding more. At the year 2000 it stood at 40 more years of consumption.

    >> It is estimated that globally there is about 242 times more shale oil than the conventional petroleum resource (we could tap into this when the price goes up more)

    >> Do you remember the acid rain scare, it was just that. Acid rain only damages trees under very rare conditions.
    26 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2002
    When I read this book, I was amazed. Based on what I had heard I had thoroughly convinced myself that our environment is getting worse and worse. And then there is this Danish associate professor Bjorn Lomborg, who writes a book describing, among other things, how:
    1. The world population is not growing at a record rate; the growth rate has been steadily declining since 1964. The world's population is expected to stabilize just short of 11 billion.
    2. There is more and more food per head of the world's population. This is largely caused by the success of the so-called 'Green Revolution' (high-yield crops, irrigation and controlled water supply, fertilisers and pesticides, and farmers' management skills). The number of people starving is decreasing (although the numbers are still frighteningly high!)
    3. Our lives and health have improved dramatically over the past couple of hundred years due to better standards of living, better hygiene and water supplies and better medical therapy. And over the past 50 years poverty has fallen more than in the previous 500. Also in the developing world a fantastic progress has been made (although there is still a long way to go!). Furthermore, over the past three decades, inequality between countries has not been increasing but decreasing. This trend is expected to continue throughout much of the century.
    4. We are not headed for a major energy crisis, nor are we likely to experience any significant scarcity of raw materials. The earth is not running out of energy or natural recourses.
    5. We need to manage and price water more carefully but we are not facing insurmountable water shortages.
    6. Overall, the pollution burden has diminished dramatically in the developed world. Air pollution has dramatically decreased over the past decades in the Western world while at the same time there has been a dramatic economic growth. It would be a mistake to believe that economic growth is in the process of destroying the earth. Economy and ecology complement each other.
    7. Global warming is almost certainly taking place, but 1) probably less devastating than often claimed, 2) radical fuel cutbacks are worse than the original affliction
    8. Biodiversity-reduction and deforestation do exist but to a much lesser extent than often thought and claimed.
    Lomborg describes all of this very transparantly, uses clear statistics, uses excellent references and argues very logically, intelligently and subtly. He constantly keeps on explaining and reminding throughout the book that the fact that things are getting better does not mean everything is OK. He clearly points at the necessity to keep on focusing on solving all of the real problems we still face. Also he acknowledges that the fact that things are getting better overall does not mean that there are no places or times were things get worse. The author says for instance: "A lot still needs to be done to improve conditions in Africa, not only in the context of AIDS prevention but also for food availability and economic production.
    I think this is a brave and terrific book. I was surprised by how ferociously it was attached by some authoritative scientists, for instance in Scientific American. These scientists treat the book literally as if it were an attack on science. I read many of the criticisms and Lomborg's response to them. And according to me, Lomborg wins by knock out. The criticisms are full of irrelevant personal attacks, misquotations and unsubstantiated attacks. Lomborg's replies are factual and to the point. I am not an expert at all in this field and I can't know how right Lomborg is. But if he's right, it wouldn't be the first time that established scientists deny a truthful new message and try to isolate the messenger.
    32 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Patricia G Murray
    5.0 out of 5 stars good book.
    Reviewed in Canada on April 2, 2024
    I haven't read this one yet but I'm looking forward to it.
  • Mauro F Rebelo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!
    Reviewed in Brazil on November 20, 2019
    Full of data and backed argumentation, he contests ‘intuitive’ interpretation and fake news (or data) inspired by other motivation. I’m sorry my brain cannot hold all that I’m learning
  • Cliente Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect service & conditions
    Reviewed in Italy on March 17, 2016
    the book - not new - has been published in 2001. the conditions were very very good, as announced in the offer. delivery was very fast. supplier recommended.
  • Peter Elliott
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Australia on March 16, 2016
    Every young person should read this, it will improve their whole outlook on the future.
  • C. C. Williams
    5.0 out of 5 stars World shaking and life changing
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 10, 2003
    There are some books that you read, 'The Selfish Gene', for example, that completely change the way that you see yourself and the world around you and this is one of those. This is a thoughtful, carefully argued, exhaustively researched and completely devastating refutation of what might be seen as the standard environmental model. Many have criticized that this book merely confirms its readers' prejudices. Possibly this is true - I was certainly sceptical myself of certain elements of received wisdom. For example, I simply could not believe that a planet, three fifths of which is covered by water more than a mile deep, was actually running short on water. Correspondingly if you hold that mankind is the greatest natural disaster that has ever befallen the planet then this book will not convince you that things are really OK.
    He points out things which the reader should already know to be true. I know that the environment of the UK has visibly improved during my lifetime - I grew up in the 1970s - and Lomborg points out that this is true elsewhere. He points out that environmental legislation can only follow prosperity and that the greatest scandal in the world is not deforestation but lack of drinking water and adequate sanitation so that many people in the developing world are poisoned by their own filth.
    So far so obvious. However, he gets much more subversive. Lomborg's strength is not that he can conduct primary research - he's not an oceanographer or meteorologist - but that he can analyse other people's data and see the patterns lying underneath. From his analysis, he shows that we are not living through a mass extinction unparalleled since the end of the cretaceous, that we are not running out of natural resources and neither are we likely to, that the world is not overpopulated, that the welfare of almost all people (and not just those in the developed countries) has improved greatly during the last century and will continue to do so, that deforestation is largely illusory, etc. Most importantly, he debunks a lot of myths about global warming and argues - persuasively I believe - that the Kyoto agreement is no more than an expensive and pointless act of public penance for our imagined sins.
    His central message is not that controversial and it is this: the world is not perfect and many things can be improved but it is not as bad as many people would have you believe. This needs to be borne in mind by our legislators when they consider implementing policies which will have a negative impact not just on our prosperity but on the prosperity of developing nations as well.

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