| THE MADHOUSE EFFECT How Climate Change Denial is Threatening our Planet, Dstroying our Politics, and Driving us Crazy Michael E. Mann Tom Toles New York: Columbia University Press, September 2016 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-231-17786-3 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-231-17786-0 | 186pp. | HC/GSI | $24.95 | |
| Page 17: | "That is still roughly double the amount of warming we would expect from the greenhouse effect of the added CO2 alone and is a result of the positive-feedback loops discussed in chapter 1, which have the net effect of amplifying the warming." |
| These are discussed in Chapter 1 (specifically on page 11), but not in enough detail. The main omission is failure to mention the water-vapor feedback, which is the most important positive feedback. Neither is ice-albedo feedback discussed. (See page 58 for the full discussion.) |
| Page 20: | "Given that less than 1 foot (30 centimeters) of sea-level rise is already posing a severe threat to low-lying island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Maldives in the tropical Pacific and Kivalina in the Arctic as well as to coastal regions around the world..." |
| Kivalina is not an island (or a nation); it is a coastal village in Alaska — one of those coastal regions discussed later in the sentence. |
| Page 22: | "These details notwithstanding, there is a small grain of truth to the premise underlying the movie." |
| I would simplify this language somewhat. I might write, "These details aside, the movie got the basic fact right: lots of fresh water in the north Atlantic can lead to cooling on land." |
| Page 28: | "The answer is yes, no, and maybe." |
| Aside from the fact that this gives three answers to two questions, I think this is not helpful. To get across the idea that we don't know whether tipping points have been passed, this should simply say we don't know. |
| Page 33: | "In the extratropics, the situation might seem better." |
| Extratropics: the area outside the tropics. |
| Page 48: | "The cost of climate change damages are already greater than the cost of reducing emissions..." |
| Number error: S/B "is". |
| Page 103: | "Opponents of climate action dug in their heals and orchestrated the most well-organized, cynical, and effective disinformation campaign yet." |
| Spelling; S/B "heels". |
| Page 108: | "He went on to found the ultraconservative John Birch Society..." |
| Richard Welch is recognized as the founder of the JBS; Fred Koch was at most a co-founder. |
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