Intellectual Self-Abuse at the New Statesman

Another second-order review, in which your humble blogger reviews a review of a book he hasn't yet read...

The current New Statesman has a review by Will Self of a new book by climate change activist Mark Lynas. The book seems, on quick inspection, to be a backbacker's guide to global warming, with observations from places around the world - the Chinese dustbowl, the Arctic, the Peruvian Andes - where changing conditions may be attributable to global warming.

Our Willy lacerates the IPCC, leaving its credibility in tatters:

I don't doubt that it's going to happen and I confidently expect that the forecasts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be shown up as overly optimistic...

Devastating wild-card factors, such as the so-called "methane burp" and the possible stalling or even stopping of the Gulf Stream - as envisaged in this year's timely disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow - are left out of the mix.

The idea of states trading "carbon credits" for the right to continue producing emissions is as fatuous as the notion that planting new-growth woodland (or even crops) can vitiate the depredations of grubbing out aboriginal forests

So it seems that Bill has taken up cudgels against the notorious deniers. No doubt those mere scientists at the IPCC will never recover from this mauling, coming as it is from one of London's most-respected restaurant critics.

I suppose it's good that this book (which is much more sensible than the review) inspires Will to take action. Maybe, in future, he'll only buy smack off dealers who invest in carbon offset of their drug mules' CO2 emissions during air travel.

Peter 笔德