The Really Inconvenient Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don't Want You to Know About--Because They Helped Cause Them

Location: Home » esoterica » Subjects » The Really Inconvenient Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don't Want You to Know About--Because They Helped Cause Them

Similar Items:

•	The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate
•	Economic Facts and Fallacies
•	The Obama Nation
•	Fleeced

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Al Gore is bad for the planet?Talk about really inconvenient truths-that's one of the many you'll find in Iain Murray's rollicking expos? of environmental blowhards who waste more energy, endanger more species, and actually kill more people (yes, that's right) than the environmental villains they finger. Did you know that estrogen from birth control and "morning after" pills is causing male fish across America to develop female sex organs? Funny how "pro-choice" and "environmentalist" liberals never talk about that. Or how about this: the Live Earth concert to "save the planet" released more CO2 into the atmosphere than a fleet of 2,000 Humvees emit in a year? We hear a lot about AIDS in Africa, but the number one killer of children in much of Africa is malaria-and guess who was responsible for banning the pesticide that used to have malaria under control? Iain Murray, a sprightly conservative environmental analyst with a long record of skewering liberal hypocrisy, has dug up seven of the all-time great environmental catastrophes caused by the Left and exposed them in The Really Inconvenient Truths. All of us want a planet with clean air and clean water, vibrant forests, healthy animal populations, and glorious open space. But liberal environmentalists aren't the ones to deliver it. In fact, they've made the planet worse, while old-fashioned property rights, unpopular hunters, and the innovative engine of capitalism have made it better. The facts are all here, in a book that Al Gore would rather burn than read.

Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding April 23, 2008
126 out of 150 found this review helpful

There are some issues which the press doesn't present in a one-sided fashion: the ones they refuse to mention at all.

If you want to learn about problems which you won't hear about otherwise, this book is the place to start. If you read only the section on malaria you'll never look at environmentalism the same way again.

Plus, this is the perfect Earth Day gift!

4 out of 5 stars

Unintended Consequences? May 15, 2008
94 out of 106 found this review helpful

Iain Murray has done a real service with The Really Inconvenient Truths. Perhaps a majority of us are now environmentalists. Yet the track record of environmentalist legislation and regulation is unenviable. There are problems with the incentives created by many bills.

The ban on DDT might have saved the live save the lives of a few birds, but it has cost deaths of Africans from malaria. Ethanol increases food prices. The endangered species act creates perverse incentives. There are what we might term as unintended consequences, as far as most environmentalists are concerned. It is important to note, however, that there does exist a lunatic fringe of the environmentalist movement, who will interpret part of the results discussed in this book as a job well done.

In some respects The Really Inconvenient Truths is unremarkable. Much of its analysis derives from common sense economics. Some of its examples are already known. This in not the first time someone has noted a connection between malaria and the DDT ban. However, The Really Inconvenient Truths is quite remarkable in the current political environment. This is a very politically incorrect book. As Murray himself notes, there is certain populist fervor among environmentalists. Murray deserves credit for taking on such a emotionally and politically charged issue.

Part of the problem of environmentalism is the conceit of social democrats and socialists who think that the world is made better through conscious planning. Yet most environmentalists are just normal well intentioned people, whose faith in government solutions has caused them to implement the wrong solutions. Why is it that the environmentalist movement retains its momentum despite the severe unintended consequences of its policies? This movement is dangerous because it is based on emotion, rather than the type of cool headed reasoning found in The Really Inconvenient Truths. Sound reasoning is important here because many lives are at stake. Bravo!

5 out of 5 stars

The Best Recent Book About the Environment. Period. April 24, 2008
85 out of 100 found this review helpful

I'll make it simple: this is the best book written about the environment in the past five years. It's a well-researched, well-written, never boring look at the way that the liberal passion for central planning has damaged just about every aspect of the natural environment. Although the subject mater may seem dry at first glance, this book actually makes it fun. It's a must-read.

2 out of 5 stars

Well Written, But Doesn't Present the Entire Picture April 22, 2008
78 out of 240 found this review helpful

The author of this book writes well and presents good arguments for how environmentalists have messed up the planet. The problem, however, is that the author doesn't present all of the information surrounding a given issue and only uses selected material to attempt to make his argument. And, that makes the basic premise of the book dishonest.

An example is the author's argument that ethanol production from corn is causing food prices to spike and people to go without food around the world. While I agree with the author that ethanol from corn is probably not the best use of the crop, his argument falls apart when examining the evidence. I happened to be listening, recently, to a radio show that featured a professor of agricultural economics from a very prestigious California agricultural school. He made the point that many other things are driving food costs, including increased fuel and transportation costs, increased wealth in Asia allowing for more imports, a weak dollar which prices food into the reach of many and severe droughts in the US and Australia. His estimate was that ethanol production was responsible for, at best, 15% in the rise in cost of food.

There are numerous other examples throughout the book, but in almost every case the author picks very select evidence to make his case and ignores the majority of the evidence. And, while it is fine for the author to have an opinion and to present via book format, he should be honest enough to admit that this is less than intellectually honest. This book will appeal to those who think liberals and environmentalists are responsible for all the world's ills, but the more moderate reader will likely be disappointed.

5 out of 5 stars

The book is on the mark! April 24, 2008
48 out of 64 found this review helpful

The real conspiracy theorists are Democrats, especially liberals, "An Inconvenient Truth" has been proven wrong, and that we are actually experiencing Global Cooling as shown by NOAA, and even many of the same scientists Gore used have changed their minds after looking at the data.

Another falsehood is Gore and his cronies took stock footage and added it into their movie/book, such as ABC Television had a CGI shot of part of the polar ice cap as melted, they put the two original footage before CGI and it was full of ice. It was taken without permission, "An Inconvenient Truth" should be filed under Fiction.

Powered by Associate-O-Matic