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The Really Inconvenient Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don't Want You to Know About--Because They Helped Cause Them | 
 enlarge | Author: Iain Murray
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $15.74
You Save: $12.21 (44%)
New (23) Used (7) from $14.17
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 1187
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 354
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 1596980540
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.7
EAN: 9781596980549
ASIN: 1596980540
Publication Date: April 22, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20080725212931T
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Tree Farmer Perspective June 21, 2008
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I bought the book after seeing a C-Span discussion by Iain Murray. I am a tree farmer and retired engineer trying to make practical sense of all the attention being given human influence on global warming and offers to pay me for carbon being sequestered in my growing trees. Murray provides both a framework for understanding the extremes of the public debate and examples of unintended consequences of prior policies. I recommend the book to anyone attempting to understand the scope and ramifications of the activist environmentalism movement. I gave four rather than five stars because there are a few subjective observations (that I tend to agree with) that are also extreme and tend to make it more difficult to have a rational discussion of the issues.
 A Delightful Tour Through Environmentalism June 21, 2008
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
While this book's title seems to indicate that it is about global warming, it is more of a popular history through environmentalism since the 1960s. And that is what makes it so valuable - and so devastating. The incompetence of environmentalists has led to much worse destruction of the environment than if we had done nothing at all. So the book does not address global warming per se (thought he does to an extent in the first chapter), but by revealing the results of previous environmental shrieking, he shows that we really shouldn't over react this time either. And we should be squinting extra carefully at the proposed solutions to climate change as, given the record, they are likely to make things much, much worse.
Murray walks us through seven incidents or issues that environmentalism has utterly botched. The book ranges far and wide on environmentalism, so that by the end we not only have explored those seven, but we know something positive about economics (for instance, how burning corn as ethenal in our cars results in less efficient care performance, more polluted atmosphere, and less food going to African aid - we literally are burning the lunch of someone in the third world), and positive solutions to environmental issues. One of my favorite chapters in the book shows how the chemicals from birth control pills are destroying fish populations, but the environmentalists refuse to do anything about it because it conflicts with the assumption that zero-consequences sexual activity is a good thing.
The book is well documented, and it is well written as well, but I found the last few chapters lagged a bit. This could also be because I read it in a single day. The last chapter, however, was a real gem, showing what we can do to help the environment without running to statist regulations, which he shows are simply disastrous to the environment.
All in all, highly recommended.
WOW! June 18, 2008
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
What can I say? Get this book. Get it now. Give it to your friends.
These are the stories that you will not hear on the news. Mr. Murray has opened my eyes. I always suspected that the environmental talk being spouted these days was all fear-mongering. Now I know. The truths behind the various catastrophes outlined in this book are very disturbing. All conscientious citizens should read this book. Thank you Mr. Murray.
Well Researched and Balanced Environmentalism June 13, 2008
17 out of 21 found this review helpful
As anyone who pays any attention to current events knows, energy and food prices are spiralling upward. Many do not know the reasons for that.
In this scholarly review of the subject, Iain Murray explores those issues and several others. He not only provides the reasons for many of our current predicaments, he also supplies solutions.
As the subtitle states, this book deals with 'seven environmental catastrophes that liberals don't want you to know about - because they helped cause them.' Although many environmentalists likely have good motives, the unintended consequences of the policies that they push have been and continue to be disastrous for our planet and the human race.
One example is the ban on the 'dreaded DDT'. Mr. Murray does a great job of showing how that ban has resulted in the deaths of a countless number of children in Africa due to malaria.
Another is ethanol. Murray makes the case that the ethanol mandates enacted by the U.S. Congress have led to much higher food prices and shortages. Additionally, it is ineffective in battling the 'problem'. Ethanol may produce 1/3 less greenhouse gas than gasoline, but it uses more gasoline to produce it than it replaces.
The Yellowstone Fire of 1988 is another great environmental tragedy brought about by the policies of so-called environmentalists. The war against logging and the anti controlled burn crusades created a powder keg. The fuel buildup was so huge that a massive fire was inevitable.
In the case of The Endangered Species Act, Mr. Murray shows how it has created disincentives to protect some of the species it claims to champion while at the same time wreaking havoc on our economy.
There are several other disasters that leftist environmentalist policies have caused. As Murray says, 'Liberal environmentalism, with its focus on box-checking rules, preference for word over substance, and its obsession with punishment of the guilty, has on too many occasions failed to prevent environmental damage, and in the meantime has harmed the economy and the humans whose well-being the economy represents.'
This is an important and timely book. From skyrocketing energy prices to high priced food and shortages of the same, the policies of the radical environmentalist movement are greatly damaging the world food supply, economy, and the environment. This book should be read by all voters and policymakers.
The Other Side Of The Environmental Story June 5, 2008
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
If you have any interest in the environment, or the proper use of science and statistics in public policy, you must read this book.
The author covers a range of ways that science and statistics have been misused in the environmental debate by the left to try to achieve results that they would otherwise be unable to sell to the voters. The author demonstrates that liberals are not the only ones that are keen to ensure that we hand on a clean safe world to our children - and indeed that many of the policies that they promote may have precisely the opposite result.
Those on the right won't be surprised by this revelation, but will enjoy this book for the way it covers the issues with enough detail to be convincing, but a light enough touch to be an truly enjoyable read. Those on the left should read it for a different reason - it puts forward a series of correctives on issues they are likely to care about, and will make them question the facts underlying their positions. You don't need to agree with the author or his conclusions, but you certainly need to hear what he has to say.
Now the book is available on Kindle it's even kind to trees. What more could you want!
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