The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World

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.


Facts Not Fiction/Look at the numbers and long term trends   November 29, 2001
R.P. (Oklahoma City, OK)
25 out of 39 found this review helpful

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.


Truth Will Out   November 23, 2001
Paul M. Neville (Jackson, MS United States)
27 out of 47 found this review helpful

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.


Overdue Sanity in the Environmental Debate   November 20, 2001
Alessandro Bruno (Toronto, Canada)
22 out of 42 found this review helpful

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).