Listen free for 30 days

  • False Alarm

  • How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet
  • Written by: Bjorn Lomborg
  • Narrated by: Jim Seybert
  • Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (150 ratings)

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
False Alarm cover art

False Alarm

Written by: Bjorn Lomborg
Narrated by: Jim Seybert
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $24.11

Buy Now for $24.11

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

The New York Times best-selling "skeptical environmentalist" argues that panic over climate change is causing more harm than good

Hurricanes batter our coasts. Wildfires rage across the American West. Glaciers collapse in the Artic. Politicians, activists, and the media espouse a common message: climate change is destroying the planet, and we must take drastic action immediately to stop it. Children panic about their future, and adults wonder if it is even ethical to bring new life into the world.

Enough, argues best-selling author Bjorn Lomborg. Climate change is real, but it's not the apocalyptic threat that we've been told it is. Projections of Earth's imminent demise are based on bad science and even worse economics. In panic, world leaders have committed to wildly expensive but largely ineffective policies that hamper growth and crowd out more pressing investments in human capital, from immunization to education.

False Alarm will convince you that everything you think about climate change is wrong - and points the way toward making the world a vastly better, if slightly warmer, place for us all.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Bjorn Lomborg (P)2020 Hachette Audio

What the critics say

"Bjorn Lomborg is that rare thing: a clear-sighted realist about climate change. In False Alarm, he argues that it would be foolish to do nothing to prepare for a warmer planet, but it would be more foolish to pretend that we are doing things that will significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions when we are not. At the same time, getting serious about cutting CO2 emissions will have a cost. As Lomborg says, vastly more people die as a consequence of poverty and disease each year than die as a consequence of global warming. As in the past, we humans are capable of adapting to climate change in ways that can significantly mitigate its adverse effects, without choking off economic growth. To learn how, you must read False Alarm." (Niall Ferguson, the Hoover Institution, Stanford University)

"Bjorn Lomborg's new book offers a data-driven, human-centered antidote to the oft-apocalyptic discussion characterizing the effect of human activity on the global climate. Careful, compelling, and above all sensible and pragmatic." (Jordan Peterson, author of 12 Rules for Life)

"[Lomborg] follows his previous critiques of climate change policy...with a hard-hitting analysis of failing strategies for addressing what he acknowledges is 'a real problem.'...A serious, debatable assessment of a controversial global issue." (Kirkus)

What listeners say about False Alarm

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    119
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    92
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    104
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Ideologically balanced

While the author has a balanced view I found himself to be quite contradictory. ie. carbon taxes are good but, says taking opportunity and money from people is bad. Then says that controlling human emissions won't do much to control global warming but should do it anyway.

I did like the stats put out showing that keeping people from poverty will do more for the environment. Just like it has done in first world countries.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Let's help humanity by using our heads

As an audio book it suffers from lack of visual support. But informative anyway. Thanks.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very thought provoking

really compelled by the authors arguments on our ineffective modern approaches to climate change and enjoyed his alternative solutions and positivity for the future. His arguments mainly surrounded helping the future of humanity which I appreciate but I would have liked to hear more arguments as to how his ideas will help preserve our forests and global biodiversity.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Why is there no proper discussion

Finally an approach to a topic that is sensitive and guided by the outcry for a scientifically based work on solutions that make sense to me. Well written.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Well informed, research based

Definitely a heavy read / listen with lots of data, numbers, and even graphs. But it is so good to hear someone speaking out of well-informed research about the climate. Would have liked to hear Bjorn narrate.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enlightening

This book is by far one of the most eye opening books I ha e ever read. his arguments are well crafted, sophisticated yet simple. it builds on and corre to the things we know are hypocritical in the green catastrophe. it makes sense and offers hope above all the overwhelming negative messages from the politically motivated idealists.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Needed info for future generations

Needed info as the media has hyped the effects of climate change. The end is NOT neigh

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

exceptional!

this is a must read by all that consider climate change to be a top five issue. Bjorn Lomborg lays out a thorough case for the abandonment of climate alarmism driven policies for climate realistic policies.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A must read!

This enlightening book is perhaps one of the most important books to promote in a world full of Trudeaus, Obamas, Schwabs and other like-minded people hell bent on destroying our world out of pure ignorance and/or out of narcissistic compulsion.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Such scientific info

This should be compulsory reading for all the world leaders who are shoving CO2 reduction down our gullets…. Not to mention compulsory reading for everyone else!
How can you dispute this info from Nobel climate economists along with all other climate scientists?
Bjorn Lomberg presents a very compelling compilation of facts to consider in this whole global warming 'crisis'.
This was an excellent read! I heartily recommend you get educated!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!