Reality Check: How Science Deniers Threaten Our Future [Book Reviews

Abstract

This book explains how a cabal of lefties, government hacks, and self-serving scientists has conspired to raise taxes, reduce freedom and extend the reach of government under the cover of phony claims about global warming. Inhofe’s scientific credentials are a bachelor’s degree in economics. Denial of the overwhelming scientific evidence supporting a belief in man-made (anthropogenic) climate change is just one bete noir for Prothero, a retired professor of geology. He recalls for us those politicians of the Bush–Reagan era, chemical energy executives and electric power moguls, who worked to deny that the hole in the ozone layer, acid rain, and DDT, were anything to worry about. One of the weaknesses of the book is that it mixes those parts of science denial having serious consequences with those that are relatively harmless.