cover image The Heat Is on: High Stakes Battle Over Earth's Threatened Climate

The Heat Is on: High Stakes Battle Over Earth's Threatened Climate

Ross Gelbspan, Gelbspan. Addison Wesley Publishing Company, $23 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-201-13295-3

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gelbspan argues forcefully that there is no scientific controversy over whether global warming is occurring. In a style accessible to the general reader, he demonstrates just how much agreement there is among scientists that global warming caused by humans has already begun, that it has been responsible for the deadly extremes in weather increasingly common in recent years and that radical measures must be taken immediately if wholesale ecological disaster is to be averted. He also contends that ""the reason most Americans don't know what is happening to the climate is that the oil and coal industries have spent millions of dollars to persuade them that global warming isn't happening."" Gelbspan documents these interests' self-serving disinformation campaigns, reveals the appalling ignorance of many congressional leaders voting to defund climate research and discloses the monetary ties between the oil and coal industries and the handful of scientists arguing that we have nothing to fear. That the insurance industry, with so much to lose if weather-related claims continue to pour in, is banding together with environmentalists in calling for swift global action, demonstrates that many from across the political spectrum are beginning to recognize the concern of most of the world's scientists. An included technical appendix refuting criticism raised by greenhouse skeptics will likely prove too long and too technical for all but the most dedicated readers. (May)