Show 139 Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming. Prager talks to author. Audio MP3

 Show 139  Dennis talks to Bjorn Lomborg, adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School . His new book is Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming.

Former vice president Al Gore … excuse us, Oscar-winning documentarian, Nobel laureate, and shamelessly hypocritical mansion-dwelling, jet-setting energy pig Al Gore … says global warming is nothing short of a "planetary emergency" demanding elaborate and expensive actions that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars. But is the hysteria surrounding global warming rational? And would the solutions he has in mind make things better for mankind -- or worse? Now, in Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalists Guide to Global Warming, noted environmental expert Bjorn Lomborg draws on extensive studies and analysis -- including the UN's most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report -- to debunk numerous popular myths that are causing people to panic (and Al Gore to win prizes).

Lomborg -- previously the author of the bestselling The Skeptical Environmentalist, and named one of Time magazines 100 most influential people in 2004 -- does believe that global warming is occurring, but not to the degree, or at the pace, that alarmists like Al Gore would have us believe. Nor are the consequences all bad -- in fact, some are, and will be, very good, not only for our species but for others. The key, he believes, is to assess the facts and approach whatever problems need to be addressed in a rational way -- which means not wasting all our energy and resources on Chicken Little hysteria when there are more pressing problems facing the world.

Cool It gives you the facts and documentation behind hundreds of "politically incorrect" revelations like these:

Sea levels will rise about one foot over the next century, according to the UNs 2007 IPCC report -- the same rise that has occurred worldwide since 1860. A 20-foot rise, such as the one seen in An Inconvenient Truth, is hypothetical at best

Global polar bear populations, contrary to environmentalists claims, are generally stable, and two populations around the Arctic Sea are actually growing. The most substantial drops in polar bear populations are a result of recreational hunting, not global warming

The recent increase in impact from hurricanes and storms has nothing to do with global warming and everything to do with the rising concentrations of population and infrastructure in coastal areas. The data available today does not support unequivocal claims that global warming is worsening storms

Though such global warming as may actually occur will mean more heat-related deaths -- about 40,000 more in the United States in 2050 -- there will also be 200,000 fewer cold deaths by then in the US.

The Kyoto Protocol is both impossibly ambitious and environmentally inconsequential. It would cost $180 billion a year for the rest of the century but would only postpone global warming by five years in 2100.

"Brimming with useful facts and common sense" -- Wall Street Journal

34 minutes. 7.8MB