Recommended Reading on the Environment and Climate

This is a brief bibliography on some notable books on the broad area of the environment, with subsections on climate change and population matters. What makes this list of recommended titles somewhat unique is that it is admittedly selective.

That is, there are thousands of titles out there on such matters. Walk into any mainstream bookstore and you will find plenty of books on these topics. But like many controversial and contentious social issues, what you will find in most bookstores will tend to be mostly of one variety.

That is, most of the books to choose from will be somewhat left of centre; alarmist in nature; critical of the free market, economic growth and the like; suspicious of business and wealth creation; radical in description and prescription; and sometimes verging on earth worship, Gaia ideology, and so on.

Books which try to argue from a differing point of view tend to be much less in number and harder to come by. Many of these titles are just not stocked at the average bookstore. So they are not only a bit harder to procure, but many people would not even know about their existence.

Thus the following books tend to be sceptical of some of the more alarmist, extremist, radical and coercive utopian green groups, agendas, philosophies and policies. They explore a number of issues: pollution, the environmental crisis, population issues, climate change, resource depletion, green lobbying, and so on. Some are written by Christians, some by non-Christians.

Therefore this list is in fact highlighting a particular perspective. By featuring them, I do not mean to imply that the other books should not be read. I am simply saying that to get a fuller picture, and a bit of balance, on these important issues, these somewhat more ‘contrarian’ volumes should be consulted as well.

General works

Barkey, Michael, ed., Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition: Jewish, Catholic and Protestant Wisdom on the Environment. Acton Institute, 2000.
Bast, Joseph, Peter Hill and Richard Rue, Eco-Sanity: A Commonsense Guide To Environmentalism. Madison Books, 1994.
Beisner, E. Calvin, Prospects for Growth: A Biblical View of Population, Resources, and the Environment. Crossway Books, 1990.
Beisner, E. Calvin, Prosperity and Poverty: The Compassionate Use of Resources in a World of Scarcity. Crossway Books, 1988.
Beisner, E. Calvin, Where Garden Meets Wilderness: Evangelical Entry into the Environmental Debate. Eerdmans, 1997.
Berlau, John, Eco-Freaks: Environmentalism Is Hazardous to Your Health! Thomas Nelson, 2006.
Booker, Christopher, Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming – Why Scares Are Costing Us the Earth. Continuum, 2009.
Coffman, Michael, Saviors of the Earth? Northfield, 1994.
Cromartie, Michael, ed., Creation at Risk?: Religion, Science and Environmentalism. Eerdmans, 1995.
Horner, Christopher, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism. Regnery, 2007.
Huber, Peter, Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists: A Conservative Manifesto. Basic Books, 2000.
Klaus, Vaclav, Blue Planet in Green Shackles. Competitive Enterprise Institute, 2007.
Lomborg, Bjorn, The Skeptical Environmentalist. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
London, Herbert I., Why Are They Lying To Our Children? Stein and Day, 1984.
Macdonald, Alex, Creation in Crisis? Green Concerns and Christianity. Christian Focus Publications, 1992.
Maurice, Charles and Charles W. Smithson, The Doomsday Myth: 10,000 Years of Economic Crises. Hoover Institution Press, 1984.
Milloy, Steven, Green Hell. Regnery, 2009.
Murray, Iain, The Really Inconvenient Truths. Regnery, 2008.
Ray, Dixie Lee with Lou Guzzo, Environmental Overkill: Whatever Happened To Common Sense. Regnery, 1993.
Ray, Dixie Lee with Lou Guzzo, Trashing the Planet: How Science Can Help Us Deal With Acid Rain, Depletion of the Ozone, and Nuclear Waste (Among Other Things). Harper Collins, 1992.
Sanera, Michael and Jane Shaw, Facts, Not Fear: A Parent’s Guide to Teaching Children About the Environment. Regnery Publishing, 1996.
Schaeffer, Francis, Pollution and the Death of Man: The Christian View of Ecology. Tyndale House, 1970.
Simon, Julian L., The Ultimate Resource. Princeton University Press, 1981.
Simon, Julian, ed., The State of Humanity. Basil Blackwell, 1995.
Simon, Julian L. and Herman Kahn, eds., The Resourceful Earth: A Response To Global 2000. Basil Blackwell, 1984.
Singer, Max, Passage to a Human World. Hudson Institute, 1987.
Smith, Samantha, Goddess Earth: Exposing the Pagan Agenda of the Environmental Movement. Huntington House, 1994.
Whelan, Robert, Joseph Kirwan and Paul Haffner, The Cross and the Rainforest: A Critique of Radical Green Spirituality. Acton Institute, 1996.
Wildavsky, Aaron, But Is It True: A Citizen’s Guide to Environmental Health and Safety Issues. Harvard University Press, 1997.

Climate Change, Global Warming

Alexander, Ralph, Global Warming, False Alarm: The Bad Science Behind the United Nations’ Assertion that Man-made CO2 Causes Global Warming. Canterbury Publishing, 2009.
Booker, Christopher, The Real Global Warming Disaster. Continuum, 2009.
Hoffman, Doug and Allen Simmons, The Resilient Earth: Science, Global Warming and the Fate of Humanity. BookSurge Publishing, 2008.
Horner, Christopher, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism. Regnery, 2007.
Horner, Christopher, Red Hot Lies. Regnery, 2008.
Lawson, Nigel, An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming. Gerald Duckworth, 2009.
Lomborg, Bjorn, Cool It. Vintage, 2008.
Michaels, Patrick, Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don’t Want You to Know. Cato Institute, 2009.
Paltridge, Garth, The Climate Caper. Connor Court, 2009.
Plimer, Ian, Heaven and Earth. Connor Court, 2009.
Singer, S. Fred and Dennis Avery, Unstoppable Global Warming. Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, 2008.
Solomon, Lawrence, The Deniers. Richard Vigilante Books, 2008.
Spencer, Roy, Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor. Encounter Books, 2008.
Wishart, Ian, Air Con: The Seriously Inconvenient Truth About Global Warming. Howling At The Moon Publishing, 2009.

Population and Demographics

Clark, Colin, Population Growth: The Advantages. A Life Quality Paperback, 1972.
Cromartie, Michael, ed., The Nine Lives of Population Control. Eerdmans, 1995.
Kasun, Jacqueline, The War Against Population: The Economics and Ideology of Population Control. Ignatius Press, 1988.
Keane, Eamonn, Population and Development. Human Life International, n.d.
Longman, Phillip, The Empty Cradle. New America Books, 2004.
Mosher, Steven, Population Control. Transaction Publishers, 2008.
Sassone, Robert, Handbook on Population. American Life League, 1994.
Simon, Julian L., Population Matters: People, Resources, Environment and Immigration. Transaction Publishers, 1990.
Trombley, Stephen, The Right to Reproduce: A History of Coercive Sterilization. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.
Wattenberg, Ben J., The Birth Dearth. Pharos Books, 1987. 182pp.
Wattenberg, Ben J., Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future. Ivan R. Dee, 2004.
Whelan, Robert, Whose Choice: Population Controllers’ Or Yours? Committee on Population and the Economy, 1992.

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12 Replies to “Recommended Reading on the Environment and Climate”

  1. Hi Bill,

    You may be interested to read this.
    http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/information-anarchy-if-traditional-media-dies-blunkett-20091112-ic2e.html

    It looks as if certain people in what you call the “MSM” are fearful of bloggers such as yourself breaking their dominance of the information industry.

    Check this out:

    “…bloggers and the like were amateurs and not accountable to their audiences.”

    “Mr Blunkett said he believed many people were ignorant of the dangers of information technology.”

    So, the internet, with its thousands of “amateur” and “unaccountable” journalists, poses a grave “danger” to the MSM. Translation: the democratisation of information threatens to undermine the MSM’s absolute totalitarian control over what the public find out about reality… and that’s got them worried.

    Cool, eh?

    Jereth Kok

  2. Ha! That’s funny! If the mainstream media actually did it’s job they wouldn’t have this issue since the resources of little bloggers wouldn’t be able to compete! The article claims mainstream news is “properly edited”? Ridiculous.

    I don’t normally watch TV at all, but I happened to be walking past a screen a couple of months back when the subject of the following post, Tom Brokaw, came up on Meet The Press. I couldn’t believe that the guy was serious.

    http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/15/media-malpractice-tom-brokaws

    But I believe there is the possibility for a sinister side to this – already in the US there has been talk of resurrecting the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ in one form or another. Yes, Jereth, it’s about loss of control and money, as usual – not about accurate news reporting.

    Sorry about being somewhat off-topic…

    Mark Rabich

  3. Indeed, Mark.

    “…real journalism…”
    “…the standards and the professional commitment…”
    “…properly edited and moderated news…”

    Edited and moderated according to the agenda of elitist, chardonnay sipping, pro-gay, tree-hugging idealogues would be more accurate!

    Jereth Kok

  4. Have just read (thanks to Amazon USA) ‘ConUNdrum, The Limits of the United Nations and the Search for Alternatives’ edited by Brett D. Schaefer which has a chapter on Climate Change. The Kyoto Protocol is administered by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat. It promotes its claims on climate change (formerly global warming) through its science arm, the IPCC.
    The IPCC conducts no scientific research but represents itself as the final word on climate change. The IPCC excludes research if produced during the two years preceding writing of the IPCC reports (unless they include alarmist material).
    Madge Fahy

  5. Some more on the failings of population control.

    ABC Radio National – Background Briefing
    21 September 2008
    Population control
    http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2008/2365806.htm

    “Are you worried about the future of the environment, or war, or hordes of refugees? The solution is not to manipulate population growth. Past results have been tragic, and ineffectual. Historian Professor Matthew Connelly of Columbia University proposes some alternatives.”

    See also the book
    Matthew Connelly, “Fatal Misconceptions”

    David Cohan

  6. Indeed, “properly edited” means shaped/re-shaped to conform to what I sometimes call the mathed (materialist/hedonist; purely-this-worldly) value-system; yes, chardonnay and the culture of death. Also, in science/academia, I worry about the “reffereed journal” business (heard of that?) – a system whereby academic control remains in the hands of a few, and researchers gain publication/funding only by way of conforming to the rulership.
    John Thomas, UK

  7. Dear Bill, The 40 year migration historian Moses, wrote, ‘the ground is under a curse because of you; in sorrow and toil shall you eat of the fruits of it’. This is the first climate change prediction. Genesis 3:17.
    ‘Who is so blind as not to recognise in all these (that good and evil are promiscuously scattered throughout nature and human life) that it is God’s hand which does it (and God’s way.)’ Job 12:9.
    Isaiah 24:5 records, ‘The land and the earth are defiled by their inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, disregarded the statute, and broken the everlasting covenant.’ Spiritual dissoution = climate change.
    Therefore a curse devours the land and the earth.
    Paul summarises, ‘Nature (creation) shall be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption: and gain an entrance into the glorious freedom of God’s children.’ Romans 8:21.
    Our Redeemer will change all. ‘No longer shall anything exist that is, accursed, detestable, foul, offensive, impure, hateful or horrible. The throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it. His servants shall worship HIM.’ Revelation 22:3. Natural change submits to spiritual transformation.
    -Amplified Bible
    Harrold Steward

  8. Bill

    Have you heard of the book “How Green were the Nazis: Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich”?

    It allegedly tells the story of how the Nazis were the original environmentalists. Using the strong arm of the government to enforce environmentalism, just as their modern counterparts do.

    Damien Spillane

  9. Years ago predictions about the end of the world by prophets of doom dressed up in sandwich-boards were dismissed, rightfully, as the product of unsound minds. Now of course, with so-called anthropogenic climate change, science, government, the media and the UN are at it and sadly the masses have fallen for it. Whatever happened to good old healthy scepticism?
    Dunstan Hartley

  10. Leon,
    can I suggest you read that University of Bristol report again. It does not say that the ‘aero CO2 change due to human emissions is about zero’. rather it says that the proportion of CO2 absorbed is constant. Not quite the same thing.
    John Sandeman

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